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Henry Cejudo was victimized by eye pokes in his last outing. | Getty/UFC
Having been a victim of them himself, Henry Cejudo believes eye pokes should be severely penalized.
The debate around eye pokes resurfaced following Tom Aspinall’s heavyweight title defense against Ciryl Gane at UFC 321 last weekend in Abu Dhabi. The fight ended in an unfortunate no contest after Aspinall failed to recover from a double eye poke from Gane in the first round.
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Cejudo was the victim of a similar foul in his most recent outing against Song Yadong this past February. Cejudo was severely poked in the left eye in the third round and couldn’t recover his vision. The bout was scored for three rounds instead of the allotted five, and Yadong won a technical decision. Had Cejudo stopped fighting when he was fouled, the fight would have been declared a no contest, as it was less than halfway through.
Cejudo believes fighters should be fined a point without any warning for eye pokes. “Triple C” further suggests that fighters should be disqualified if they repeat the foul.
‘It Happens to Everybody’
“It happened to me and it happens to everybody,” Cejiudo told ESPN. “The Nevada State Athletic Commission, they need to step up and say, ‘Automatic one point, second time you do it, disqualification.’ No more… I have a hole in my left eye now. And I don’t know if it will ever go away. There’s a circle where Song poked me.”
Cejudo retired as the bantamweight champion at the peak of his career in 2020. However, the Olympic gold medallist returned to action after a three-year hiatus in 2023 and has since dropped three in a row. Cejudo is now scheduled to face prospect Payton Talbott (10-1) at UFC 323 on Dec. 6 in Las Vegas.
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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