If UFC keeps leaving fighters to their own devices, eye pokes and groin kicks are going to keep staining a sport the world’s grown to love.
It’s time to fix this problem once and for all.
A double-eye gouge—yes, double-eye gouge—ruined what should have been the fight of the year at UFC 321 on Saturday. Ciryl Gane went knuckle-deep into heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall’s left eye, only for Aspinall’s right to be the one that needed further medical examination.
Just a week earlier, two fights on the same card at UFC Fight Night: de Ridder vs. Allen were marred by groin kicks. Mike Mallot kicked Kevin Holland in the you-know-what twice in one fight, and Drew Dober kicked Kyle Prepolec in the jewels in Round 3, got docked a point, then took the judges out of the fight altogether and won by knockout.
Mallot beat Holland by decision, with Holland cursing his opponent’s post-fight apology.
That’s the problem with groin kicks. We’ll get to eye pokes in a second. But let’s start there.
When a fighter gets kicked low, five minutes isn’t nearly enough to recover from what amounts to full-body torture. And while he’s hunched over trying to remember how to breathe, the guy who kicked him gets the same five minutes to recover his legs and his gas tank.
By the time they start again, the victim’s still shaking off trauma while the other guy’s fresh enough to finish the fight—and maybe even erase the deduction with a knockout.
Half the time, the ref doesn’t even take a point. It’s basically the combat sports version of saying, “Hey, maybe don’t do that again.”
But what’s the fix?
At the very least, these things should count for something. UFC tracks every meaningless stat under the sun—insignificant strikes, time spent mounted with no damage dealt—but nothing for eye pokes or low blows. Those should be listed right next to wins, losses, submissions and knockouts. And both fighters involved with those infractions should get asterisks next to the bouts in question.
Next, the penalty needs teeth. One clean kick to the groin should be an automatic point deduction. A bad one? Round forfeiture. You send a man into orbit from a shot to the belt line and he decided to continue the fight?
You lose the round—a big chunk of your purse, plus the ability to call your shot for your next fight. And multiple infractions should get a fighter suspended. Plain and simple.
Now, back to the eye pokes.
Look no further than Jon Jones’ social media. The self-proclaimed GOAT changed his profile photo to a duck wearing an eye patch and a championship belt—a jab at Aspinall, who, for the first time in forever, was bloodied around the nose and clearly losing the first round before Gane accidentally clawed at his face.
The idea that Aspinall “ducked” Gane is ridiculous, an especially inflammatory assertion coming from the same fighter who retired instead of fighting Aspinall for the belt—only to magically un-retire when Dana White broke the news of a White House card in 2026.
Risk your championship belt after nearly getting poked in the brain through the eye socket, or reschedule the fight to a later date?
No pun intended, but that’s a no-brainer.
Jones, of course, is the ultimate troll. But he’s also part of the problem. His legacy of eye pokes has never been properly acknowledged because, again, UFC doesn’t record this stuff.
And when they finally tried to fix the issue with new gloves that would prevent fighters’ fingers from naturally extending outward, Jones reportedly told the commission he wouldn’t fight Stipe Miocic at UFC 309 unless they scrapped the new design and kept the old ones—the same ones that make eye pokes nearly unavoidable.
Then UFC gave in. And just like that, the problem stayed unsolved.
Jones, who now troublingly goes by “Jonny Meat” on his social media pages, might be the only fighter to ever lobby for keeping dangerous gloves. That shouldn’t be a surprise given how many time he’s gone unchecked for his second signature move behind the spinning back kick.
Sure, UFC could try protective eyewear, but no fighter’s signing up to throw head kicks in goggles. The real answer’s been sitting in front of them the whole time: fix the gloves, set firm penalties, and stop letting “accidents” dictate fights.
Aspinall shouldn’t have to risk both eyes for UFC to figure it out
The old gloves should’ve been gone yesterday.
