Herb Dean Reveals Plans for a Regulators’ Meeting To Address Eye Pokes

When it comes to controversial rules and enforcement in MMA, fingers to the eye are never far from the top of the list.

In the wake of back-to-back Ultimate Fighting Championship events in which key bouts hinged on severe eye pokes, the perennial issue is back at the forefront of fans’ minds. Two weeks ago at UFC 321, the heavyweight title fight headliner ended in the first round when a double eye poke from challenger Ciryl Gane left champ Tom Aspinall unable to continue.

An even more dramatic chain of events unfolded on the co-main event of UFC Vegas 110 on Saturday: Aspinall’s teammate Ante Delija unleashed a flurry of punches on Waldo Cortes-Acosta in the very first round, forcing referee Mark Smith to intervene, resulting in an apparent TKO win for Delija. However, replay showed that Cortes-Acosta was initially compromised due to an eye poke. Smith restarted the fight and “Salsa Boy” went on to knock out Delija just seconds later.

Herb Dean, the longest tenured active referee in the sport, claims a much-needed meeting will be held to address the issue of eye pokes in MMA. In an interview with Helen Yee, Dean said that while sweeping rules changes are normally addressed during the Association of Boxing Commissions’ annual conference in the summer, the recent rash of high-profile incidents is resulting in an immediate discussion, scheduled for this week.

“The thing with changing rules, there are always unintended consequences. But we have to try something… If you make a decision and say it was an eye poke and you give the guy a break, and it wasn’t an eye poke, it was a fair blow, you just took the win from that guy. Or if you think it wasn’t a poke, now the guy has to fight through that situation. We’re gonna talk about a bunch of different scenarios. I don’t know what’s gonna happen but I know it’s gonna be discussed next week… early next week, I think there was a conversation happening on the 4th, Tuesday.”

This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com

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