Henry Cejudo hits out after another eye poke controversy in UFC Vegas 103 main event
Eye pokes have been a consistent talking point in back-to-back UFC main events following two controversial endings.
Last weekend’s Seattle main event brought about a lot of discussion with referee Jason Herzog admitting mistakes to Henry Cejudo.
The former UFC bantamweight and flyweight champion was stopped in the fourth round due to eye pokes and whilst Cejudo is keen to run it back with Song Yadong, he’s also exploring other options.
This weekend saw the Octagon return to the Apex in Las Vegas where the headliner ended in very different circumstances but the same talking points came back around.
Manel Kape defeated Asu Almabayev but ‘Starboy’ seemingly poked his opponent in the eye which then led to the fight-ending sequence.
Henry Cejudo shares an unbiased opinion on the impact of eye pokes
Henry Cejudo’s situation was very different to what Asu Almabayev dealt with at UFC Vegas 103.
In the case of ‘Triple C’, the fight was called off by the doctor and for good reason with Cejudo clearly telling his corner that he couldn’t see out of the eye.
Almabayev was poked during an open-hand slap from Kape which Mike Beltran didn’t see with the eye clearly causing the fighter issues when he was stopped in the third round.
In a post on social media, Cejudo gave his initial reaction to the March 1 main event by commenting on the impact of eye pokes.
Both main events have proven how they can affect high-level fights in different ways and though Cejudo is going to come at the conversation from a certain perspective, he raises a significant point.
“Eye pokes are the greatest threat to the growth of this sport (unbiased) #UFCVegas103”
Eye pokes are the greatest threat to the growth of this sport (unbiased) #UFCVegas103
— Henry Cejudo (@HenryCejudo) March 2, 2025
Both Henry Cejudo and Asu Almabayev’s open up different problems
In the case of Henry Cejudo, the biggest talking point was that there needs to be stricter punishment for eye pokes because of how much they can impact the fight.
The same is true for Asu Almabayev’s loss to Manel Kape but in that instance, the poke was missed by the referee, making it a human error rather than a fault of the rules.
That being said, even if Mike Beltran had seen the poke, it’s unlikely that he would’ve penalized Kape for it on that occasion.
Mistakes are always going to happen but more significant and frequent punishments along with a revamped glove design could help to reduce the amount of eye pokes.
