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Eye pokes aren’t just a glove problem

Eye pokes are a problem. Is there a way to reduce them besides changing gloves?

Here’s a story that you have probably seen play out countless times before: A fighter gets accidentally poked in the eye. Oops! The referee warns his opponent to be careful as if they had no clue their fingers could inflict such damage to one of someone’s five senses. The match resumes, with one fighter still trying to blink away the pain caused by the incidental blow. But then moments later, it happens again.

Eye pokes are a common occurrence on MMA cards. Along with the usual moves like guillotine chokes, armbars, calf kicks and double leg takedowns, a thumb or middle finger jabbing into an opponent’s eye is something that viewers of the sport are accustomed to seeing.

For a long time, the frequency of eye pokes has been considered a flaw of the UFC glove. Compared to the gloves of Pride FC, for example, where fingers are slightly bent so that they cannot stick outward at an opponent as easily, UFC’s gives their fighters a lot more freedom. Pundit Joe Rogan loves the gloves that Trevor Wittman designed, saying they would be a suitable replacement for the ones used by the UFC. The years-long plea from viewers and pundits for UFC’s gloves to get changed was finally answered recently, although the jury is out on if the change will stop one of the biggest glove-related qualms.

A New Glove Appears, but will the issue of eye pokes be fully resolved?

When the promotion revealed a new glove earlier this month, the promotion made a big deal out of it. They touted how it would protect a fighter’s hands more and include a futuristic microchip that would track who the gloves belong to (think Apple’s AirTag, but for face-punching devices). But there was an immediate question people had that wasn’t really answered too well: Will the gloves reduce eye pokes?

The answer? Well, maybe, but no promises. In this piece by MMA Fighting’s José Youngs and Alexander K. Lee, the question was posed to UFC Performance Institute Senior Vice President Duncan French. He noted that the test run of the gloves in Dana White’s Contender Series saw fewer eye pokes than usual. Is there a direct correlation between the gloves and the number of eye pokes? He wasn’t willing to say just yet.

“We hope that that is a consequence of a redesign and the nature of the glove, but we’re all watching moving forward to ensure that this is going to be the case,” he said.

Could be a fix, or not. We’ll have to wait and see when equipment debuts at UFC 303.

If we tune in for UFC 302 and Islam Makhachev, Dustin Poirier, or somebody else on the card suffers pokes to their eye or eyes, what will we do? Design another glove? Good luck convincing the UFC, who just revealed a new glove for the first time in who knows how long. But what if I told you there are other fixes? As Kevin Hart said in his straight-to-Netflix movie recently: “If you can’t hack the tech, you gotta hack the people.”

Gloves Aside, How Can We Reduce Eye Pokes?

Fouls in MMA are, to an extent, legal. As long as you make a mistake and it looks believably unintentional, you are let off with a warning. The second time around, you might get a strong warning. That’s different from a soft warning because, well, it’s strong. There’s not much that actually stops fouls from happening in these instances. Apart from the possibility that a mistake could be so grand that it causes a fight to end in a no contest, is there really an reason to avoid making such errors?

It is the referee’s discretion to determine which fouls constitute a point deduction. “Only a referee can assess a foul,” the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts say. But quite frankly, the warning system currently in place isn’t strict enough. A change has to be made. The issue is, determining what type of change would be positive really isn’t easy.

Where Do You Draw The Line?

If you have initial pushback against the idea of making the rules around fouls stricter, that’s understandable. While most athletes in other sports are punished for mistakes no matter their true intent (think fouls in basketball, penalties in football), the rigid scoring of MMA means that any sort of punishment would be quite strong.

There are few comparisons to the type of punishment that getting a point knocked off a round is like. Trip someone in hockey? Your team gets a disadvantage for just two minutes, which could be a forgettable moment in the game by the end. Commit a minor foul in a basketball game? Your opponent gets to add one or two points to their score total which could surpass 100 by the end. However, in MMA, your chances of winning become significantly slimmer if a point is deducted.

It is quite honestly hard to draw the line. As it stands right now, if every foul resulted in a point deduction, we’d be seeing a lot of results go very differently. Does that mean that taking away one point due to a singular foul is too strict? Maybe. But on the other hand, how much is it really a foul if there’s no punishment attached to it? A fighter is essentially escaping scot free the first ors second time around currently. Maybe, making fouls more strict will scare fighters into being more cautious with how they move, thus causing fewer fouls to happen.

It’s hard to figure out how this change can be properly made, and I’m not going to propose a hard rule that MMA should abide by. Instead, I think this is something that people within the industry should discuss more. Fighters, trainers, referees, pundits, and more. The eye pokes discourse should not start and stop with changing the gloves.

The way it’s set up right now, there’s no incentive for fighters to be careful about what they do. While most fouls are honestly unintentional, they could also arguably be happening because making such errors are an afterthought in training and competing. With stricter rules, that could change.

An improved glove that reduces eye pokes would be big for MMA and is important for UFC to focus on. And who knows, come UFC 303 we might be seeing a new glove that actually makes significant changes. However, eye pokes cannot be completely abolished in MMA with an equipment change. With the way gloves must be designed, allowing fingers to poke out, they are inevitable. To limit the issues further, a stricter interpretation of the rules must be followed as well.

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3 fighters who should receive a title shot after UFC 300

Three title contenders that came out of UFC 300.

It’s quite rare that a UFC card will put forward not one, but two title contenders. But on the one-of-a-kind night that was UFC 300, which had high-level matchups from the opening bout to the main event, many potential title matchups were set up.

Coming out of last weekend’s show from Las Vegas, there are a few fighters who seem to have a clear case for a championship bout sometime in the future. Before we finally move on from what is likely the card of the year and arguably an event that can be compared to some of UFC’s best, let’s discuss some names who deserve a chance at gold soon.

Max Holloway

Even heading into last weekend, Max Holloway had a decent argument for a featherweight title fight.

His track record at featherweight has been phenomenal, but simply not enough to get him a chance against the king of the division in recent years. Why? Because the long-time champ, Alexander Volkanovski, beat him three different times since 2019. With a trio of losses to the top name, it was hard to justify another title fight for Holloway. However, when Ilia Topuria stopped Volkanovski earlier this year to become the new champion, things changed.

Now, Holloway is a fighter who has, apart from his losses to one fighter, gone undefeated at featherweight for a decade. Wins over Yair Rodriguez, Calvin Kattar, Arnold Allen, and many others in the weight class. With the stellar record he has over the past few years against quality opponents, he had a solid argument for a fight against Topuria. That’s a pretty good resume, and it’s worth remembering: This was before he had his massive performance at UFC 300.

In retrospect, Saturday night was icing on the cake. Holloway put together an incredible striking performance against lightweight Justin Gaethje. He then finished it off with a career highlight, scoring a last-second walk-off knockout punch to end the fight in viral fashion. The fight turned Holloway not only into a strong contender but also a fighter riding the momentum of a popular performance.

UFC 300 could have been a disaster for Holloway. He might have had a weaker argument for a title fight if he lost, even though the bout was in a different weight class. But luckily he doesn’t have to worry about that anymore. Now he can figure out what, if anything, he needs to do for a title shot.

Some might say that Holloway’s numerous title fight losses to Volkanovski and the fact that he has been in so many wars in the past give him rough odds in a fight against Topuria. There’s no doubt that Topuria will be a tough assignment for him, although it simply is the right fight to make at this moment. Since he is well qualified for a championship chance and is still in a high-level performance part of his career, it feels like the perfect time to give him a chance against Topuria.

Arman Tsarukyan

Just after Arman Tsarukyan overcame Charles Oliveira in a competitive three-round decision, it looked like he would be a solid next challenge for Islam Makhachev. However, just a few hours later, it became clear that he would actually have to be the next-next challenger. This was because it was announced later in the evening that Dustin Poirier would challenge for Makhachev’s belt at UFC 302.

While Tsarukyan can’t say he’s next in line for a shot, he might be able to make that case in just a couple of month’s time once the lightweight title goes on the line once again. Due to UFC 300 and 302 being close together, it actually works quite well for Tsarukyan, if he is next up for a shot. And he should be, here’s why.

Heading into this weekend, Tsarukyan already had a strong record at lightweight. However, unlike a situation like Max Holloway, he definitely had to do more to justify a fight against Makhachev. He had nine wins at lightweight, and his two losses along the way came with interesting stories. In 2019, he lost to Makhachev, which is a defeat that has aged gracefully. And in 2022 he dropped a decision to Mateusz Gamrot, a five-round result that was highly debated. Just check out this MMADecisions page to see how people felt about that one.

Tsarukyan has lots of wins to discuss as well. He stopped Beneil Dariush in just over a minute, beat Damir Ismagulov on scorecards and finished Joel Alvarez with strikes. His win over Oliveira this weekend—while definitely a close fight—is easily the biggest victory of his career.

It was just months ago that Oliveira was up next for a title shot. After suffering an injury in camp, the former champ was removed from his UFC 294 bout against Makhachev. He hadn’t fought in between that time and last Saturday, meaning his status as a top lightweight near a title opportunity hadn’t faded that much. Tsarukyan took that momentum from him with a narrow win and is arguably one of the best-suited challengers for the belt. That is, at least after Poirier, according to the matchmakers.

Kayla Harrison

Women’s bantamweight isn’t a very populated division, meaning it doesn’t take much for a fighter to climb the rankings. If you have a few strong performances, it’s easy to make a case for a title shot.

Kayla Harrison might only have one UFC fight to her name, but she seems to also have an incredibly strong argument for the title match that she has been incredibly focused on for months — following her outing at UFC 300.

Harrison won her promotional debut in dominant fashion, submitting Holly Holm with a rear naked choke in the second round. Her victory came after a week of questions that called into doubt how she would do: Would Harrison struggle to make bantamweight, a class that she has never gone as low as? Will the weight cut hurt her performance? How will she do against UFC-level talent? By making weight, performing normally in the class and putting together a win that made her look like the far more skilled athlete, it silenced a lot of the critics and put her in a great position in the division.

Harrison’s pre-UFC career must also be considered when weighing whether she should receive a title fight. She is coming over after a 16-fight PFL career, mainly fighting up at the rarely-seen women’s lightweight division. While she never had any huge wins in the PFL, her multi-year dominance in the promotion gave her a reputation that followed into her UFC run.

Harrison was placed fourth in the bantamweight standings this week, putting her below just a few other fighters. The only fighter ranked above her that hasn’t received a title shot in the past is Ketlen Vieira. There’s certainly a case to make that Harrison isn’t the definitive next challenger for the bantamweight belt. However, when you consider that she is a fresh face in the division, had a strong debut against a respected opponent, and has the hype from her successful PFL run, it seems likely that she could get an opportunity for a title soon. And if she does get that chance, it’s hard to argue against it.

UFC 300 Was A Big Night For Making Contenders

Even when looking beyond examples of fighters who could get a title shot immediately, UFC 300 had many bouts that presented talents who could be just one fight away from being in that position.

Take for example former light heavyweight champion Jiri Prochakza, who stopped Aleksandar Rakic in the second round. Or Aljamain Sterling, who bounced back from a title loss and won his featherweight debut. Jessica Andrade might have even gotten a step closer to a rematch against Zhang Weili with her prelim victory over Marina Rodriguez.

It will be interesting to look back on UFC 300 in a few months and see where the winners on this show have gone. Chances are, at least a few will be in title shots, and maybe even one of them will go on to become champion.

Who would you grant a title fight off the back of UFC 300?