Revisiting eye pokes, Cejudo vs Song

[JBJ was here]

It was after Jones started doing it but mid 2010s seems late. I was thinking it was like 2012-13, but I cannot find it right now. Might do a deeper dive when I get some free time. I definitely believe it was before the Glover fight.

Rule change effective January 1, 2017.

 

[Dr. Rose]

Rule change effective January 1, 2017.

thanks. well after Glover and 18 months before his quasi retirement. Thanks man!

 

[JBJ was here]

thanks. well after Glover and 18 months before his quasi retirement. Thanks man!

No problem. Definitely later than I thought; it's a change that was talked about for a while before actually happening.

 

[HuskySamoan]

So I've heard a lot about Cejudo trying to game the system, Song's eye pokes being unintentional...

Despite the result, that's another can of worms. What i saw was Henry get poked and couldn't continue and Song won after that stoppage. I saw Cejudos eye bleed.

What caused the eyepoke, the innocuous outstretched hand, I've seen some referees try to dictate. I'd like to know if that should be a legal position. I mean I've heard of fighters trying to "feel distance" or maybe they want to keep their hands up and it takes more effort to have closed fists. The dynamic of the fight i saw was Henry was outsized and had no wrestling outside fakes, he got most his work done by darting in with combos. He was shorter and had to rush in, hence the eyepoke

I don't know what else he could've done but it seems a bit unfair. An exculpatiry factor is I don't believe Song has a history of eyepokes, but now I sort of see him as a Jon Jones. And I know Song was winning but it seemed a little close to me

I feel eyepokes should be worth a point with serious damage. I don't like the way things turned out with the TD. I know Henry gets a bad rap, he's on a loss streak and may have lost again, but i see nothing good for Song either

You can glue foam balls to the fighters finger tips.

In all seriousness, some things can't be prevented from happening all together like spiking, clashing heads, blows after an opponent is unconcious, eyes getting poked etc. You gotta weigh the best way to mitigate these factors. Pride gloves restrained the range of motion of the hand so it was hard to fully straighten the fingers, which leads to less eye pokes. You could also punish them more commonly to establish less tolerance but it's such a natural body position to have your fingers extended, when you're moving around trying to establish range and feel...having your fists always clenched is kinda bizarre.

 

[CasualBot]

Eyepokes should be legal

If you are allowing your opponent to get their hands within the distance to eyepoke it is exposing the lack of defense you have

Same goes for soccer kicks, biting, titty twisters, wet willies, and dick punches

 

[Dr. Rose]

No problem. Definitely later than I thought; it's a change that was talked about for a while before actually happening.

Yeah, the debate about it is probably what threw me off the timeline by so much. Cheers, and thanks again for digging into for me.