Former UFC women’s strawweight champion Rose Namajunas offered a radical suggestion to help curb eye pokes in MMA.
Namajunas fought Natalia Silva at UFC 324 in January in what was a pivotal women’s flyweight bout. Although she entered the fight as a hefty underdog, Namajunas made the fight close, as many media and fans scored the fight in her favor. Ultimately, the judges awarded a unanimous decision win to Silva. To make matters worse for Namajunas, she suffered a nasty eye injury in the fight due to being poked in the eye by Silva, who was not deducted a point due to referee Jason Herzog deeming the eye poke accidental. Had a point been deducted, the fight would have been scored a unanimous draw instead.
Taking to her social media this week, Namajunas posted a positive injury update, telling her fans that her eye is fully healed after being on the mend for three months. But she’s still not happy about the eye poke, and she suggested that to really stop them from happening, fighters need to be hit where they will be hurt the most: in their wallets via purse deductions.
“So you wanna be a fighter? Three months and now I’m healthy finally. Thumb and eye are all fixed up. I’m a bit out of shape but I’m cleared to train now. I really hope eye pokes will be taken more seriously in the future. I propose instant purse deduction even for an accident. An accident that could seriously affect a fighter’s health long term. Anyways, I’m just grateful that it was not more serious,” wrote Namajunas on her Instagram, adding the hashtag “#itsnotthegloves.”
Referees Have Alternative Options For Punishments
It is worth noting that under the Unified Rules of MMA, which UFC events fall under, referees can take points or DQ fighters who foul their opponents. However, other promotions around the world have used card systems that penalize fighters with purse deductions when they break the rules, something which Namajunas evidently agrees with.
Either way, referees need to be quicker to make point deductions for all fouls. This is the only way that fighters will stop committing them, as there are far too many fights where fighters commit eye pokes, low blows, fence grabs, headbutts, and all sorts of other fouls, without being penalized. While Namajunas’ idea to take money from fouling fighters has merit, right now, referees can take points or DQ offenders, yet many officials are seemingly too afraid to insert themselves into the fight.
Eye Pokes End Great Fights
While eye pokes have been a topic of conversation for many years, even leading to the UFC temporarily changing the gloves in an effort to curb them, they have come under even more scrutiny in recent years due to their detrimental effects on fights.
The most obvious example of an eye poke ending a great fight took place last fall at UFC 321 when Ciryl Gane poked UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall in the eye, leading to the fight being stopped due to a No Contest. Aspinall has not fought in the six months since then due to the eye injury, which was the first time in UFC history that a title fight was stopped due to an eye poke.
Perhaps purse deductions are the way to go, but at the very least, referees need to start taking points immediately instead of giving fighters several warnings before they take a point.
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