Oogpokes have been a consistent conversation point in back-to-back UFC head events after two controversial endings.
The main event of the Seattle in the last weekend brought a lot of discussion with referee Jason Herzog troubled those mistakes to Henry Cejudo.
The former UFC Bantamweight and Flyweight Champion was stopped in the fourth round because of eye pokes and while Cejudo would like to run back with Song Yadong, he also investigates other options.
This weekend the Octagon returned to the Apex in Las Vegas, where the headliner ended in very different circumstances, but the same talk points came back.
Manel Kape defeated Asu Almabayev, but 'Starboy' apparently struck his opponent, which then led to the fighting order.
Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
Henry Cejudo shares an unbiased opinion about the impact of eye pokes
Henry Cejudo's situation was very different from what ASU Almabayev treated at UFC Vegas 103.
In the case of 'Triple C', the fight was canceled by the doctor and for a good reason with Cejudo who clearly told his corner that he could not stand sight.
Almabayev was punctured during an open hand of Kape that Mike Beltran did not see clearly caused the hunter problems when he was stopped in the third round.
In a message on social media, Cejudo gave his first reaction to the main event of 1 March by commenting on the impact of Oogpokes.
Both most important events have proven how they can influence battles at a high level in different ways and although Cejudo will come to the conversation from a certain perspective, he brings an important point.
“Oogpokes pose the greatest threat to the growth of this sport (impartial) #UFCVEGAS103”
Eye Pokes pose the greatest threat to the growth of this sport (impartial) #UFCVEGAS103
– Henry Cejudo (@henrycejudo) 2 March 2025
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Both Henry Cejudo and ASU Almabayev's open different problems
In the case of Henry Cejudo, the biggest point of discussion was that there must be a stricter punishment for eye products because of how much they can influence the fight.
The same applies to the loss of Asu Almabayev against Manel Kape, but in that case the Por was missed by the referee, making it a human error instead of a fault of the rules.
Having said, even if Mike Beltran had seen the Por, it is unlikely that he would have punished Kape for it on that occasion.
Errors will always happen, but larger and frequent penalties together with a renewed glove design can help to reduce the amount of eye pokes.
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