Nassourdine Imavov pulled off a big win in front of a hometown crowd at UFC Paris last weekend, taking a solid decision win over Caio Borralho to solidify his position as a top contender for the next middleweight title shot.
Imavov’s performance was technically impressive, if not the most exciting win we’ve ever seen. He also took advantage of all the free fouls you get as a UFC fighter these days. That had former welterweight champ Robert Whittaker steaming as he watched, and he addressed it on his
MMA Arcade podcast.
“Eye pokes need to be addressed,” Whittaker said. “They need to be addressed … I remember the ref coming in, giving [Imavov] the hard the hard warning. And then [putting his hands] straight out like this.”
“His hands are open straight away. Like, that’s how he gauges distance. That that’s just what he does. He’s still pointing out. Like, instantly. Guy made zero zero changes to anything from that hard warning.”
“Eye pokes are so hard,” Whittaker continued. “Because when you get eye poked, it doesn’t matter whether it’s hard or not, your vision blurs or doubles. It just it just puts you off so much, so much. It’s so hard to deal with.”
“I think the consequences need to be a little bit more dire. One poke can change a fight easily, and it’s not just him. There’s a lot of people. It needs to be addressed.”
We’ve been watching fighters get eye poked repeatedly in fights with nary a point being taken away for years. It’s at a point now where you know you’ve got two free pokes and a low blow to burn before really having to worry about getting penalized by the ref. With so much riding on the line, it’s kind of surprising we don’t see even more fouls than we do.
Until someone gets permanently blinded on live TV, we don’t expect to see changes. And even then, we’d give it 50/50 odds.
