Belal Muhammad suffered multiple eye pokes in his loss to Ian Machado Garry, and that doesn’t sit well with him.
Muhammad (24-5 MMA, 15-5 UFC) lost a unanimous decision to Machado Garry last month at UFC Fight Night 265 from ABHA Arena in Doha, Qatar. He was poked in the eye in Rounds 1 and 2, but Machado Garry (17-1 MMA, 10-1 UFC) wasn’t deducted any points.
Advertisement
The former UFC welterweight champion is no stranger to eye pokes. He was poked in the eye badly in his main event fight against Leon Edwards in March 2021, which rendered him unable to continue. Tom Aspinall recently saw his heavyweight title fight against Ciryl Gane at UFC 321 ruled a no contest after he couldn’t continue from an eye poke.
Muhammad believes something has to change.
“What did we see in the fight? Obviously we didn’t see much. We got poked in the eye three times,” Muhammad said on his YouTube channel. “What are you going to do, right? I said Ian was very smart at figuring out ways to win fights and understand how to win. He understood that poking in the eye was going to win the fight, especially when you do it early, especially when you don’t get points taken away from you.
“The rules need to be changed. There needs to be repercussions. Otherwise, guys are going to keep doing it. What’s the point?”
Advertisement
Muhammad ultimately praised Machado Garry for his game plan and acknowledged that he needs to make improvements in order to snap the first losing skid of his career.
“No, Ian was pretty smart,” Muhammad continued. “We knew he’s very good with his distance management. He was going to be sticking and moving. Obviously we pushed for five rounds. A three-round fight, you’ve got to start faster, you’ve got to start earlier, you’ve got to catch them earlier.
“For me, we got to change that. We got to step on the gas sooner. I think by the third round we figured out the distance, we figured out the style, but it was already too late. You’ve got to do that sooner, and also for myself, we just got to get better.”
This article originally appeared on MMA Junkie: Belal Muhammad irked by constant eye pokes from Ian Machado Garry
