Michael Bisping believes it’s long overdue for the UFC to impose harsh repercussions for eye pokes.
The UFC Seattle headliner between former two-division champion Henry Cejudo and Song Yadong took a controversial turn last Saturday when an eye poke brought the fight to an abrupt conclusion.
At the end of the third round, Cejudo suffered an accidental strike, prompting a five-minute recovery period. Although the fight briefly resumed, "Triple C" ultimately admitted that his vision was compromised heading into the next round, leading the judges to award Yadong a victory via technical decision.
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During a recent video on his YouTube channel, Bisping — who was on commentary for the Fight Night event — shared his thoughts on the polarizing outcome of the Cejudo vs. Yadong fight.
Drawing from his own experiences, the UFC Hall of Famer argued that "Kung Fu Kid" should have faced some form of penalty for the severe eye poke.
No. 1, I think we should have had a point deducted," Bisping said And I don’t say that because I want to see Song Yadong’s career jeopardized or anything like that. No, I like Song Yadong, I’m very good friends with Urijah Faber, and I have a lot of respect for the whole team.
"The Count" further pushed for the UFC to enforce stricter penalties, such as automatic point deductions, to deter fighters from extending their fingers in a way that increases the risk of eye pokes.
But the eye pokes, people need to know that there’s goddamn f**king consequences. Eye pokes are terrible. You know all about my history with the eyes. Eye pokes are bad. If you start taking points, people will stop stretching their f**king fingers out. Then when the third round started, and there was only a minute left, Song Yadong had his fingers out and so did Henry Cejudo, and I’m like, why isn’t the ref saying anything?
If referee Jason Herzog had deducted a point from Yadong, the outcome of the fight could have been drastically different. "Kung Fu Kid" secured the win with one judge scoring the contest 30-27, while the other two scored it 29-28.
However, with a point deduction, those 29-28s would have shifted to 28-28s, resulting in a majority draw instead of a victory.