These eye-pokes are getting out of hand, and readers of the mailbag have lots of questions about what can be done to stop or at least limit this scourge. Plus, what does Mackenzie Dern’s win over Virna Jandiroba for the vacant UFC strawweight title really mean in the big picture?
All that and more in this week’s mailbag. To ask a question of your own, hit up @BenFowlkesMMA.
@braiiinnnnn: how much blane does the ufc deserve for refusing to change the glove design. id assume itd be easy to just use pride gloves since they own pride
In years past I might have said the UFC was blameless for what are essentially officiating problems. The rules are the rules and so forth. It’s for the commissions, not the promoters, to fix them.
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But now? With this particular issue? After all this time? Yeah, the UFC is definitely part of the problem, mainly because it refuses to be part of the solution.
Let’s take it back to April 2024, when the UFC first unveiled the new glove design at the UFC 300 weigh-ins. I was there. I watched the video presentation about how much time and research and money had gone into this redesign. I even tried on one of the gloves (and had zero problem immediately extending my fingers into the shape of eyeball skewers).
So when the glove designer guy came out to take questions, I asked him whether shaping the gloves in such a way as to limit eye-pokes had been part of the process or even a potential goal they discussed. Short answer: No. They spent all that time and money and didn’t even try to address what was already a massive problem.
They also ended up abandoning that glove design entirely just a few months after the gloves went into use. We’ve heard different explanations for that decision. Some said fighters (including Jon Jones, one of MMA’s most prolific eye-pokers) complained about the fit of the new gloves. Others said the UFC ditched them because the logos wouldn’t stay on.
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Whatever the reason, the end result was that we ended up with the same old gloves, same old rules, same old problems. So on the matter of eye-pokes, the UFC has done nothing at all to address the issue, except complain along with the rest of us every time it ruins a big fight.
I might have more sympathy for that approach if the UFC and its parent company TKO weren’t very, very active about changing other rules. The UFC didn’t like how many state athletic commissions released details on fighter pay, so it got almost all of them to stop. The UFC didn’t like how stringent the USADA testing program was, so it made up its own alternative. TKO didn’t like the limitations imposed by the Ali Act, so it’s pushing through a new version that it wrote just for itself.
Clearly, the UFC and TKO are not powerless to change the rules of this sport or the way they’re enforced. They could do something about this. They could at least try something different, whether in glove design or rule enforcement or both. They are choosing to do nothing because they don’t really see it as their problem. It’s not their eyeballs or careers being affected. As long as it doesn’t mess with the money, they aren’t motivated enough. Which sucks, frankly.
@StaleSonnen: What is the best order to commit all the fouls to maximize chances to win without reprocussion? Im thinking open with a nut kick, grab the fence if needed, elbow to back of head, more fence grabbing, and finish strong with an eye poke. Maybe headbutt in there somewhere.
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The way the sport works now, you’d be a fool not to poke your opponent in the eye some time in the first round. That has to be the most effective foul there is. You can potentially limit your opponent’s ability to see you, which would be really helpful in a cage fight, and the only way it really goes badly is if he comes right out and says he can’t see, essentially asking for the fight to be stopped.
But he’s not going to want to do that, is he? Because, as we know, the person who’s going to be blamed for the stoppage is the person whose eye got poked. Probably all that will happen after that first poke is you’ll get a warning from the referee. Maybe you’ll get a point deducted, but if it leaves your opponent even just a little less capable of seeing your punches coming, so what? A finish inside the distance renders the scorecard obsolete.
Honestly, one of the fouls that seems most likely to lead to actual consequences of some sort is the fence grab. Maybe it’s because it’s so obvious and never accidental, but refs almost can’t miss it. If you use it to successfully stop a takedown, they seem to feel obligated to do something because it has so visibly altered the flow of the fight. All the other stuff — groin kicks, blows to the back of the head — is more likely to fall into stern warning territory.
@justlikelasagna: Normally Negative Ned here wants to try and be Positive Paul today so let’s celebrate Mackenzie Dern new UFC champ. I mean, the never give up/down and out/try and try and try again arc of her journey to the top is a hell of an inspiration.
Agreed … kind of. Where you lose me is with the phrase “journey to the top.” Because, yes, Mackenzie Dern is presently the UFC women’s strawweight champ. But is she really the top strawweight in the world? Or is she just the top strawweight while Zhang Weili is out seeing to other business in another weight class?
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I’m not saying we shouldn’t be impressed by what Dern has done in her career. She went from looking like a promising prospect who wasn’t panning out to being, at the very least, among the best fighters in the division. But let’s not get so blinded by the glare coming off that shiny gold belt that we lose sight of what this really was. It was a fight between two contenders and Dern squeaked by for a decision win. Simply calling it a title fight does not magically make the winner the best in the world.
@RyoSozen: Do you see Zhang Weili vs Mackenzie Dern as hydrogen bomb vs coughing baby?
Dern is a grappler that has trouble getting takedowns and when she does get inside she ends up expending a lot of energy in the clinch.
And Zhang is dangerous in the clinch.
If that fight were booked right now, I think you’d see Zhang as at least a 3-to-1 favorite. She’s got the edge on Dern in pretty much every category. She’s much faster and more dangerous on the feet. She’s stronger in the clinch. She has the wrestling chops to either take Dern down or prevent the fight from ever going to the mat. Dern has a very active guard and manages to do a lot off her back without letting opponents get comfortable in her guard, so that’s good, but Zhang wouldn’t ever need to get there if she didn’t want to.
Of course, there’s always a chance that it never becomes an issue for Dern. Depending on how this fight with UFC flyweight champ Valentina Shevchenko shakes out at UFC 322 next month, maybe Zhang doesn’t ever come back down to 115 pounds. Then I think Dern’s biggest problem is Tatiana Suarez — assuming Suarez can stay healthy.
@Geo2468rank: Currently there is much negativity in UFC, what is some positives that have come out of this year? I’m trying to identify a reason to keep watching UFC going forward and I’m having trouble coming up with reasons.
Here’s one: No more pay-per-view events in 2026. At least, that’s the way it seems for now. The UFC is moving over to Paramount, which means most events will likely be available with a subscription to Paramount+. It also means that, with a new broadcast partner shelling out literally billions of dollars, the UFC might feel some renewed incentive to put on strong events right out of the gate in order to attract subscribers and reassure Paramount that this wasn’t all a huge mistake.
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Also, if we take a moment and tune out all the noise, we can appreciate that today’s UFC has some of the best fighters we’ve ever seen. I mean that both on aggregate (the average UFC fighter in 2025 is undoubtedly way better all around than the average UFC fighter in 2015), but also at the top. Fighters like Ilia Topuria, Merab Dvalishvili and Zhang Weili, just to name a few, are all poised to potentially cement themselves as the best to ever do it in their respective divisions. That’s pretty exciting. Especially when you consider what the next year could mean for all of them.
