Contributor: Josh Hall
The UFC had their second Fight Pass card last Saturday, and by in large it was a really entertaining card. There was one big black mark on it for me though, and that was in a referee’s inability to properly assess eye pokes (or the lack there of) and deal with them in a way that is fair to both fighters. It is never a good thing when eye pokes directly impact the result of a fight, but to see it happen twice on the same card is ridiculous, especially because there is a way to fix the problem.
The first fight where the foul was a factor was bout between Claudio Silva and Brad Scott. There were two separate eye pokes called in the fight, but that doesn’t even begin to tell the story here. I didn’t even catch it on first viewing, but Silva actually used the eye poke as a defensive technique throughout the fight. Time was stopped in the first round for one after a finger finally found Scott’s eye after two minutes of Silva pawing away at it every time Brad would attempt to come forward. In the second round another eye poke occurred and referee Leon Hall just looked at both fighters in apparent confusion before telling them to fight on. Finally in the third round Scott appeared to be pulling away with the fight when he landed a big right hand that appeared to stun Silva. Within seconds he was poked in the eye again. Silva used that break to compose himself and immediately attack and secure a takedown to win a disgusting 29-28 decision because there were no points deducted for the barrage of fouls. This is unacceptable.
Move forward from the prelims to the main card and the flyweight debut of Brad Pickett against Neil Seery. Your referee is once again Leon Hall. Once again we see an eye poke, except this time we don’t. Seery throws a left hook with a closed fist and the knuckle on his thumb connects with Pickett’s right eye. Pickett immediately backed off and asked for time, but this was absolutely 100% a legal strike. In the unified rules listed on the UFC’s website the only designation for a foul to the eye is “Eye gouging of any kind”. That cannot be done with a closed fist. By rule, if Pickett needed the referee to stop time at that point he should have been declared the loser via TKO. Instead, Leon Hall stepped in and called time, brought in the doctor, gave Pickett roughly 35 seconds to recover, and told Seery to be careful. Pickett would go on to win a unanimous decision.
There is a proper way to handle the situation that arose in the Pickett/Seery fight, as we have seen that exact same scenario before in the UFC. At UFC on Versus 1 in March 2010, Alessio Sakara fought James Irvin and early in the fight Irvin backed off asking for time after taking a left hand to the eye. Referee Josh Rosenthal stopped the fight, brought in the doctor to check Irvin, and spoke with Sakara. He assessed that it was a legal strike that had landed and awarded Sakara the win via TKO. The commentary team commended him for the great officiating displayed there to get it right. Sadly, not all officials are going to do a sparkling job every time, but there is a way to stop this scenario and others like it from happening again.
Referees need a certain amount of discretion in the cage to do their job, but inconsistency in officiating is never a good thing and eye pokes are the most black and white rule violation in the sport. If we want this to stop the first step is setting a step by step protocol for referees to use regarding eye pokes specifically in lieu of the discretion allowed to officials for other fouls. Where referee judgment is very necessary in determining whether a foul is accidental or not in most cases, it is not so regarding eye pokes. Negligence is never an accident, and every eye poke that happens is because a fighter is improperly extending an open hand rather than a closed fist. All a warning does is give a fighter the option to do it repeatedly until they finally do poke their opponent in the eye because they know it won’t be held against them.
In the unified rules there is already a specific section for low blows, and it is time to see one added for eye pokes. Keep it simple and consistent across the board and a lot of problems will go away. Upon an eye poke being called, immediately call in the ringside doctor to check the injured fighter. While this is going on, check the replay ringside to confirm the foul. This can be done in the time that the doctor has checked out the fighter so it should not make the fight drag on unnecessarily. If the foul is confirmed, assess a one point deduction to the offender with no exceptions. If the foul is not confirmed (i.e. the Pickett/Seery fight or Sakara/Irvin) and a legal strike caused the damage then the person that threw said strike would be the winner via TKO.
Though the automatic one point deduction may seem harsh, it should cause fighters to take the time to train keeping their hands closed so that it becomes second nature just like other proper striking and grappling techniques. It also takes away any and all option of using the eye poke as a weapon or a defensive technique because points are too valuable with the small number of rounds in MMA to risk giving them away. Fighters do it now because they can. They know they won’t get penalized on the first offense, and often on subsequent offenses as well.
With the mandatory point deduction for the eye poke, the use of replay to confirm the foul is essential. I know that MMA has stayed away from the use of replay for the most part, but checking an eye poke is a quick process. All you have to see if the hand that connects with the eye was a closed fist or extended fingers. The short amount of time is well worth it because it serves two purposes. It stops fighters from trying to game the system by feigning pokes where there is nothing there and it stops situations like Neil Seery having the win of his career stolen from him because a referee can’t tell the difference between a closed fist and an eye poke. If there was no contact at all upon replay and a fighter faked it to try and get a point deducted, deduct a point from them for timidity.
Between the automatic point deduction and proper efficient use of replay you can effectively eliminate eye pokes over a fairly short time by forcing fighters to train a proper closed fist in striking or lose as a result. I have no sympathy for any fighter that loses a fight because they just can’t stop poking their opponent in the eye and keep losing points. With all the eye pokes being confirmed, no one will lose points if they aren’t guilty of the offense. All the inconsistency of one ref taking a point after a second offense while others may let three or four go with no deduction would be gone and the fighters would know exactly where they stand at all times in that regard.
One thing I know is as a fan I feel embarrassed when I watch a card and I see one fighter utilize eye pokes extensively to win a fight with zero punishment for them and then another fighter lose a win because an official mistakes a left hook for an eye poke. It makes the sport look less bad, and the fix is a very easy one. I know getting rules changed is not simple in the sport, but I really hope that logic will prevail and some sort of change will be made to put a stop to this garbage. This is just one option that is out there that is viable and practical, and can ensure that the two bad miscarriages of justice we saw in London will never happen again. Whether it is this or something else, change is necessary in the handling of eye pokes. We only hope that those that have the power to enact change will act sooner rather than later.
-Josh can be reached at [email protected] or @jhall282.
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