MMA referee Herb Dean has given his thoughts on eye pokes in the sport.
As we know, eye pokes have been a real problem throughout the history of mixed martial arts. With that being said, the conversation has shifted in recent months, especially in the wake of Ciryl Gane’s double eye poke against Tom Aspinall. As someone who has been a referee at the elite level for many years, Herb Dean has been there and seen it all when it comes to issues like this.
Herb Dean is one of the best known refs in the game and while he may not always be the most popular of individuals, he is certainly still someone plying his trade at the very top of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. As we look ahead to the future, it’s hard to picture Herb not being in charge of some of the biggest title fights in the game.
In a recent interview, Herb Dean spoke candidly about the aforementioned eye poke topic.
Herb Dean’s view on eye pokes in MMA
“OK, so I have my hand on your head controlling your head, perfectly fine. But of course you don’t like that, you don’t want your head controlled and you start moving your head around wildly and all of a sudden you get your eye on a finger. You actually put your eye on a finger because, you’re doing the right thing but the way you chose to do it, you didn’t choose to back off, you started rolling your head and somehow a finger got near your eye.”
“What I’m saying is that’s why we can’t make things automatic, that’s why there has to be discretion.”
Quotes via ACD MMA
In a general sense, we just hope that there are more penalties introduced in the future to help control this issue.