The UFC has zero intention of getting rid of eye pokes

[Steve Fox]

That's PowerSlap bro

 

[Koya]

Different gloves is the only solution. Eyepokes are like low blows, it's unavoidable, punishing it will not change anything and to be fair you can even argue that if the fight continues there shouldn't even be a point deduction, because if you say you can continue it implies your eyesight was not negatively affected, and if the poke was intentional or the vision is affected, then it should be a DQ.

Fighters who gloat about never poking anyone are not being honest imo, some styles are just more susceptible to poking, especially long guys who fight at range. If you're a short guy who fights in the pocket you hardly get the chance to poke.

You can't force someone to close their fist, you see it time and time again, they try and their hand just opens again, it's natural. Have a glove that curves the fingers down, it's the only way.

I think a very strict rule like intentional or not first eyepoke is a point deduction, second is a DQ could work too.

 

[Vil7]

DANA WHITE HIRES WOMEN TO TIE HIM UP & EYE POKE HIM.

 

[b00tysweat]

I think a very strict rule like intentional or not first eyepoke is a point deduction, second is a DQ could work too.

this is my take. backroom is the first warning "no fouls this will be a clean fight"

then you take a point on each foul, including fighters faking getting fouled

 

[zuffazombee]

Unfortunately, this has been clear for a long time.
It's not their eyes that are being poked with fingers.


When they want to, they ask Commissions to change the rule immediately; just remember the case of Jon Jones with the 12-6 elbow strike allowed exclusively for his return.

You realize the 12-6 rule was changed FIFTEEN YEARS after the Jones-Hamill fight, right? And, you also realize the rule was changed AFTER Jones made his return to the UFC?

 

[dubhlinn]

it's up to the adopted rules that the commissions are responsible for enforcing. UFC can push for something with public statement. but they have little power to enforce anything. blaming gloves is a cop out talking point that gets people arguing into infinity and distracts from constructive improvement. but having a main event champ fight called off because of it, kind of moves the needle on the subject, so to say. eye poking has been an issue forever. but rarely has it been dramatized as badly as of late.

if the UFC changes the gloves, again, and another eye poke happens, the same shit storm is gonna get wound up and tossed around. it comes down to a drastic punishment. these guys are "professional fighters." the UFC is, allegedly, the pinnacle of MMA representation. these guys know they'll get 1 or 2 eye pokes and/or nut shots per fight, intentional or not. make it a dramatic punishment like an immediate DQ and they'll stop. toss out some DQ losses on their permanent "professional" record, and they'll all fall in line eventually. they'll realize how badly they're fucking themselves and keep their hands closed if there is no more tolerance.

nobody tosses knees to "downed opponents." because that's enforced more drastically. bitch ass aljo won the belt because of that specific offense. make eye pokes equally as bad in the perception of both the fans AND the fighters and you'll solve the issue. no warnings, no point deductions, no fucking with purses. immediate DQ loss and they'll adapt.

 

[AMAZINGUFC]

You realize the 12-6 rule was changed BEFORE Jones made his return to the UFC?

The rule was changed in favor of Jones to face Miocic at Madison Square Garden.

Jon Jones 'really looking forward' to using legal 12-6 elbows at UFC 309 https://share.google/pyhuuQw14q7MbpVis

 

[mozfonky]

Different gloves is the only solution. Eyepokes are like low blows, it's unavoidable, punishing it will not change anything and to be fair you can even argue that if the fight continues there shouldn't even be a point deduction, because if you say you can continue it implies your eyesight was not negatively affected, and if the poke was intentional or the vision is affected, then it should be a DQ.

Fighters who gloat about never poking anyone are not being honest imo, some styles are just more susceptible to poking, especially long guys who fight at range. If you're a short guy who fights in the pocket you hardly get the chance to poke.

You can't force someone to close their fist, you see it time and time again, they try and their hand just opens again, it's natural. Have a glove that curves the fingers down, it's the only way.

a million things can happen accidentally or incidentally during a fight or training. Anyone who cannot stop themselves from breaking rules or looks like they are trying to do some things in the sport should be banned but I've seen video of Jon Jones intentially doing things that can alter a person outside the ring life permanently.

Anyway, the eye is a very delicate part of the body and no one should have it attacked to entertain anyone. Boxers have been going blind as long as boxing has existed, but in the last 50-60 years most fighters do not intentionally thumb anyone. Probably most retinal detachments are not even from thumbs but just regular punches. They say Sugar Ray Leonard got his detached retina from an elbow in sparring, and others like Aaron Pryor just had a facial structure (he was half Japanese) with eyes that just weren't very sunken in and he had I think both eyes with detached retinas.

It's on my mind a lot because I'm seeing flashes of light and I'm wondering what's causing it as well as the floaters. I'm reading it comes with age in many cases but I do know that I've also been pressing down on my eyes just out of anxiety. If that's all that caused it, that just tells me how delicate that part of the body is, even if I'm in that age group where it's common. Anyway, I think anyone doing that kind of thing should just be banned immediately if it seems they can't stop or they look like the are intentional about it. I had an old trainer who told me he was responsible for banning Gerard Gordeau after he took out Yuki Kondo's eye. The Japanese officials of whatever organization was promoting a fight with Gordeau told my trainer, in response to, "Everyone else is willing to fight Gerard" that, "Everyone else isn't us, we look after our guys (somewhat true, somewhat not)" and he got gerard banned and none of his fighters had to worry about it. Some people you can't reason with. That Palhares guy or guys like Gerard and many, many others, can't be changed, it's like they don't even have control of themselves so just ban them.

 

[mozfonky]

The UFC policy on eyepokes is laughable:
1st eyepoke - warning.
2nd eyepoke - stern warning.
3rd eyepoke - your final warning.
4th eyepoke - deduct a point if the other guy still has eyes, otherwise call it NC if the ref can't talk the fighter into continuing.

maybe not one and done but probably should be a lot stricter and left to some qualified officials, maybe the ref, maybe a doc, I don't know. Of course somethings can get abused too, people will invariably will claim they were fouled to get an easy win on a dq. I've seen some skeptical quit jobs on eyepokes, we aren't in someone else's body so, who knows. Same happens with low blows in boxing, big fights have been won by doing some drama playing up a foul. No easy solutions I guess. I would think eye pokes are about as serious a foul as there is, even your cup can provide some protection from nut shots but the eye is plain vulnerable on any human being.

What I do know is that the people who run the fight business are generally all scumbags and even if they aren't, even the good folks are still a part of something that is intrinsically damaging, and so, can never really be "clean".

 

[Intermission]

Same happens with low blows in boxing, big fights have been won by doing some drama playing up a foul.

What reallly famous has that happened in?

 

[AMAZINGUFC]

Unfortunately, this is a disgrace. Those who should be part of the solution are actually part of the problem.

 

[mozfonky]

What reallly famous has that happened in?

well, the biggest one in recent history that I can think of is the Bowe-Golota fights where Golota was just beating the hell out of Bowe, both fights, and lost because of low blows. Bowe was considered one of, if not the best heavyweights of all non-title heavies fighting. I thought he was overhyped, honestly, but many people thought he was the best challenge out there for Tyson, Lewis, Holyfied (who he beat twice) who were all the top guys at the time of those fights with Golota. Those two fights damaged Bowe mentally, he retired after and slurring was noticeable right after that second fight. That's the ironic thing, Golota was beating Bowe without illegal tactics, but anytime Bowe tried to rally, Golota would snap and hit him low. It was a pattern Golota would go on to repeat, just a headcase with a ton of talent. He'd later get freaked out when Lennox Lewis took the fight to him and lose in one round and quit when Tyson broke his orbital bone with a single punch, which of course made him look like just a quitter, even his own trainer was calling him a bum and saying, "you can't quit ya bum!" In that case, maybe Golota knew what those of us watching didn't that he had a serious injury. Boxing is different than mma, it has traditionally been the worst thing a fighter can do, to quit. Seems like the UFC made it more acceptable in boxing because quitting became way more common for boxers in the last 30 years.

The most infamous in boxing history of a low blow causing a title to change hands was Max Schmeling taking the title from Jack Sharkey on the mat, whining about the low blow. Sure he was criticized for winning the title that way but he still got it.

As far as fouls where a guy lost that shouldn't have, there was the Roy Jones-Montell Griffin 1 fight where Montell took a knee and Roy hit him while he did that, and got dq'd as Montell did a shitty job acting like he was actually kayoed. It does happen.

I do know of a guy who I knew from my old gym who looked to me to quit in a fight where a guy poked his eye in an mma fight, pretty high profile one in japan, but.., I don't know if he really quit or not, I think he tapped out and claimed his eye was poked but he didn't convince anyone enough to get a dq, again, we don't know how much his eye was really poked.

then.., we have the fights where guys complained about being thumbed and say they lost the fight because of it or at the very least, couldn't fight as well, there was the poor, doomed Davey Moore who took a thumb in the eye vs.. Roberto Duran and was half blind and beaten to a pulp. Ernie Terrel claimed that Muhammad Ali grabbed him in a headlock and thumbed him intentionally in a 60's title defense. I don't know if he actually just took a thumb or just used that to excuse his poor performance. Ali was never a dirty fighter and in those years, he did not have to rely on rough tactics to beat anyone so, I doubt Terrels claims. Duran? He was mean enough to thumb someone intentionally so I don't know.

 

[TGArthur]

Mind blowing how many people can't decipher the difference between the UFC and AC when it comes to who makes the rules and who can change them.

 

[RichardHarrow]

New policy:

1st eyepoke - deduct a point
2nd eyepoke - You get demoted to the Cantender series after this fight
3rd eyepoke - you have to manually shovel all the snow onto Dana's vegas driveway
4th eyepoke - you have to swab the deck of Conor's yacht

I'm sure i can score one of those rejected girls on the yacht but I'm a Muslim...

 

[SkinnyClaw]

I think a very strict rule like intentional or not first eyepoke is a point deduction, second is a DQ could work too.

See my point is eyepokes would still happen, the guys who do them would just lose the points or get dq'd more often, it wouldn't actually protect anyone's eyes imo, I'm saying the way some guys fight they can't help it, so just make it harder to do with a better glove, rather than demonizing those guys, then they can still have their hands relaxed, but the fingers are forced down instead of out

 

[zuffazombee]

The rule was changed in favor of Jones to face Miocic at Madison Square Garden.

Jon Jones 'really looking forward' to using legal 12-6 elbows at UFC 309 https://share.google/pyhuuQw14q7MbpVis

The rule was changed AFTER Jones had made his return to the UFC. It wasn't made FOR Jones.
Had that been the case, the rule would have been changed FIFTEEN years earlier.
Also, the rule was officially changed more than 4 months before the Jones-Miocic bout & was instituted prior to UFC Fight Night in Edmonton.
Take off the tin-foil hat.

 

[AMAZINGUFC]

The rule was changed AFTER Jones had made his return to the UFC. It wasn't made FOR Jones.
Had that been the case, the rule would have been changed FIFTEEN years earlier.
Also, the rule was officially changed more than 4 months before the Jones-Miocic bout.
Take off the tin-foil hat.

I posted the news above, don't argue with facts.

 

[Pierced7681]

imo it should be 1st eye poke - deduct 2 points
2nd eye poke - DQ

people just arent learning on this, the eye is very vulnerable and there is no excuse to open up your palm, these guys train for years in gym, do they do the same in their fighting gym? i doubt so they will get kicked out but the punishment arent harsh in UFC thats why fighters are doing this

I trained at a pro mma gym for years, from what I experienced all the fighters used 16 ounce boxing gloves during standup training and only switched to mma gloves a week or so before the fight and went super light contact so I never saw any eyepokes whatsoever.

 

[zuffazombee]

I posted the news above, don't argue with facts.

Your own article proves you wrong. Tell me you didn't read it without telling me you didn't read it.

FACTS???
JULY 23, 2024.

Officials vote to remove '12-6 elbow' ban in MMA

The Association of Boxing Commissions and Combative Sports voted to remove a ban on "12-6 elbows" and also changed the definition of a grounded opponent in MMA.

www.espn.com

More FACTS???

New MMA rules including legal '12 to 6' elbows go into effect for UFC Edmonton

Saturday’s Fight Night card in Edmonton will be the first UFC event to operate under a set of new rules that will allow fighters to use two previously illegal striking techniques.

www.sportsnet.ca

You. Are. 100%. Wrong.

 

[AndrewGolota48]

I mean not much u can do other than make the rules really serious about it to really discourage fighters from having open hands out for feints and distancing.

But in reality. If someone stops u with an eyepoke. They kinda won the fight. If i'm in a real fight and the difference was having that inch or 2 more range to eyepoke someone without getting in range to get ko'ed.. Yea i'd take it. Unfortunately mma isn't completely a real fight cause sports got rules n stuff.

This is a good point I hadn't really thought of, if we're serious about finding what actually works in real world martial arts, then perhaps we've all been looking at it completely wrong and eyepokes should in fact be made legal.