Contributor: Josh Hall
Eye pokes are terrible. Everyone knows that whether they have ever fought in a cage, had a sparring session, or lived for a substantial period of time. In MMA they have become a growing problem, finally coming to a head at UFC 159. We saw not one, but two technical decisions after third round eye pokes. This was certainly an anomaly, but the way the two situations were handled by the respective officials was drastically different
In the Gian Villante vs Ovince St. Preux fight, Villante was caught by a finger to the eye in the final round, in what was a very close fight up to that point. Referee Kevin Mulhall asked Villante if he could see, then stopped the fight immediately when he said ‘no’.
Contrast that with the Michael Bisping/Alan Belcher fight, and you have totally different actions from referee Herb Dean. Bisping caught Belcher with a glancing thumb to the eye, causing him to start bleeding immediately. Dean did not immediately
stop the fight, however. He consulted the ringside official, had him check out the problem, and then made his decision on the advice of the doctor.
Here is where things get a bit screwy. Both referees were completely within their rights as officials here. But good news is on the horizon, as the powers that be have realized this problem needs to be addressed. UFC Regulatory VP Marc Ratner spoke to USA Today recently about necessary rule changes, and had this to say about the UFC 159 chaos:
“The referee was a very good referee. Kevin Mulhall is one of the top referees in the world. Once the fighter said he couldn’t see, it puts the referee in a position where he has to stop it. So it’s the kind of thing where you want the doctors, who are there for that exact reason, to make the final determination before you stop the fight.”
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ufc/2013/04/29/marc-ratner-ufc-unified-rules-association-of-boxing-commisions/2122139/
Hopefully this potential change can lead to a uniform policy for officials to follow regarding eye pokes, and removing the confusion would be a great step in the right direction. Even so, it’s not enough. Even if we have an exact protocol for officials when a poke occurs, we still have the big problem of the frequency of said pokes. I have an idea that might help that problem.
Whether an eye poke is intentional or not, it is still caused by either negligence or malicious intent. Either way, it is always the fault of the fighter keeping an open hand extended, usually in the standup. When this happens the first time, fighters know that they are going to get a free pass the first time. That actually gives participants a strategic reason to keep their range finding hand open, as it discourages their opponent from moving forward aggressively for fear of taking a finger in the eye.
How do we fix this flawed aspect of the sport? My idea is two-fold. Step one involves a one point deduction for ALL eye pokes. Yes, this may change the results of some fights early on, but what it will also do is force fighters to train to keep their hands closed. I think that can only be good for the sport long term. If a fighter wants to avoid losing that point, they know exactly what to avoid. There is one other problem with the automatic point deduction though. Floppers.
If fighters know that faking an eye poke can gain them back a lost round, some of them (cough,cough, Koscheck) will try to game the system. This is where the second part of my proposition kicks in. While the fighter is being checked by the ringside physician, the referee quickly checks the replay to confirm there was indeed an eye poke. Upon confirmation of the eye poke, the offending fighter has a point deducted and the fight continues if the doctor OK’s it. If there was no poke, then the fighter that faked it loses the fight via verbal submission. If the ‘poke’ to the eye was actually a knuckle, then it goes down as a TKO victory for the fighter that threw the strike. It’s pretty simple, will insure consistency with the officiating in this aspect of a fight, and will
force fighters to train to actively avoid poking their opponents in their eyes.
One other area where there is a great deal of contention is regarding the gloves. I have done some sparring with 4oz gloves, but never the ones the UFC uses, so I’ll defer to the knowledge of someone that does this for a living. In an interview with Bloody Elbow, Cub Swanson had this to say about MMA gloves:
“I think MMA gloves are crap, to be honest. First off, they’re square. When they give them to you, they’re a square piece of 4 ounce glove. They say that they’re open fingered so you can grapple, and then you can close your hand to punch. I believe the gloves should be rounder, because we hit from weird angles. If you relax your hand, the way the gloves are now, the natural position is for the hand to be completely open, which is why so many people get poked in the eye. If they were curved, and you put them on and relaxed your hand, your hand would follow the curve, not completely open. You’d only have to squeeze a little bit to make a fist with a more curved glove. It’s a balance that’s missing with the current gloves. The padding, instead of just falling off at the sides, should follow the curve of the hand more.
When we get the gloves, the UFC tries to help out by sort of curving the gloves for you overnight. You also have to kind of stretch them out a little bit, because they’re brand new and stiff. Some commission guys, like in Toronto, they wouldn’t let anybody touch my gloves but me, and the problem with that is I can barely get them on. When you can’t break them in, they’re very uncomfortable. I had to put them on early and start hitting the pads early, the day of the fight, just so I could feel comfortable, and not have the circulation cut off in my fingers. If I do less handwraps, then I might break my hands again.”
http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2013/2/6/3959300/ufc-the-quiet-ascension-of-cub-swanson-dustin-poirier-jose-aldo
I may not be an expert, but this certainly isn’t a ringing endorsement of the current gloves. What is good is it offers a possible solution from the perspective of someone who uses the gloves as much as anyone will. I don’t know if Swanson’s proposed solution would work or not, but it couldn’t hurt if the UFC had some fighters try out some different variations during training sessions. If the current design is part of the eye poke problem as Cub suggests, then some alternatives must be looked into for the good of the sport.
There you go folks. That’s all I’ve got on this. Come yell at me in the comments, Tweet me, or shoot me an email if you have better ideas. I would love to hear them.
-Josh can be reached at [email protected] or @jhall282.
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