Why don't more fighters use their Free eye-poke?

[ModernMatt]

Absolutely, ideally throw a nut shot in there too.

i don't know if its because i am severally lacking sleep today, but this made me laugh for a good 5 minutes. I just pictured it in a regular bar convo with friends and answering like this with such conviction made me laugh more.

 

[Pancake Sprawl]

Not just the eye poke, you get 2-3 free cage grabs depending on the ref too so you might as well use those.

i'm waiting for the fighter who does 2 eye pokes, 3 cage grabs, and a nut shot or 2 sprinkled in randomly in EVERY fight in the UFC. unfortunately for some other fighters a single bite gets you immediately disqualified and removed from the organization. you don't get a warning, a point deduction or anything. just straight L and gtfoh.

seems strange since Dana is best buds with the man who popularized the technique.

 

[ModernMatt]

The first thing every fighter should do is poke a eye or use the also free groin shit. Why not start out with a nice advantage

hahaha, just picturing both fighters going for this right off the bat in each round is hiliarious to picture.
"got'em right in the nuts before he poked my eye, now its easy path to victory"

don't know why this became a thread and don't know why its making me laugh this hard at it....i need a good nights sleep tonight, hahaha

 

[El Fernas]

Almost never? Its 100% Never, since eyepokes are according to the refs, accidental, at best they get a warning, you can see fighters extending their hand to keep the opponent away, they push the other guy face, its not that accidental if you play with fire and then burn stuff up, its not. 1 point deducted the first time, rate will drop instantly.

 

[KOPPE]

(1) If you are very zoned in on a fight, you probably aren't going to be focused on pointing eyes.

(2) The eye is a very small target, it's hard to hit directly on the eye, let alone poke it.

(3) Hands up trying to poke at the face is going to open you up for takedowns.

(4) Most eye pokes are passive, from being coming into you, rather than you going into them. If you can land a forward moving eye poke, you can probably land a punch, which may be more effective.

1- A good fighter should have the ability to make adjustments and to fight through adversity not just be zoned in on one thing. Fedor might be the best example. Outstriking the striker (Cro Cop) even if that probably wasn't his main gameplan,and pounding on the grappler (Big Nog) on the ground even if standing would have been preferable.

2- True. but keep it in your back pocket.

3- You have to eye poke from the outside and always maintain distanc, keep the wrestler at the end of your jab.

4- Eye pokes are the worst because they cause the most damage. its more effective than a punch and risk free dirty trick.

 

[baba2008]

Yes, It would also make it so that if you eyepoke a guy you lose half a point, you nut shot a guy, you lose half a point. now you're down a point.

where as now you could perform both of those actions in one round and suffer no consequence

Can you imagine how stupid not calling accidental fouls would look in other sports? Hockey - slashed the ankle and injured the player but no call because he was going for the puck - hitting the ankle was purely accidental.
NBA - jump up, miss the ball and end up landing on the shooter. Well that's clearly a non-call because he was going for the ball - landing on the guy was an accident. Unless of course it was Draymond though - he most likely wanted to land on the guy

Its total bush league and makes the whole sport look amateur.

 

[Iroh]

The smart thing to do is to immediately kick your opponent in the nuts

The master knows to hit the nuts in just the right angle for the opponent to hunch over in pain, and while hunching over to land his head, and even more so, his eyeballs exactly into the already spread out and erect fingers.the master has stratigically placed down below, like falling into the spiked pit in Mortal Kombat.

 

[Yep]

Man oh man. Looks like things might be chamging. I’ve never understood the whole warning aspect and have been vocal and my viewpoint was mostly shot down. Glad to see it. There’s more crazy people like me that think there has to be a system in place that penalizes breaking the rules. I realize it’s a strange concept. A wildly progressive concept that people that break rules get penalties. It’s refreshing to see more and more people either vocal about or coming to this conclusion. Clearly work is not done but we are adding numbers by the day. Let’s grow!

 

[BROWNPRIDE]

I agree. Jones starts his fights by eye pokes and never loses.

 

[Ares Black]

I agree. Jones starts his fights by eye pokes and never loses.

Jones' willingness to cheat is his greatest asset.

 

[Bagatur]

because not every fighter is a scumbag like teh Chris!

 

[Sean_wongster_wongmastter]

1- A good fighter should have the ability to make adjustments and to fight through adversity not just be zoned in on one thing. Fedor might be the best example. Outstriking the striker (Cro Cop) even if that probably wasn't his main gameplan,and pounding on the grappler (Big Nog) on the ground even if standing would have been preferable.

2- True. but keep it in your back pocket.

3- You have to eye poke from the outside and always maintain distanc, keep the wrestler at the end of your jab.

4- Eye pokes are the worst because they cause the most damage. its more effective than a punch and risk free dirty trick.

I'd rather take a eye poke than a punch from anyone 155 and above.

 

[Senzo Tanaka]

I remember years ago, Jon Jones said him and his trainers would scour over the rule book for loopholes. One of them being the eye poke. You can basically get away with multiple eye pokes before there's a penalty so why not use it? He mentioned if you poke a fighter once and especially twice, it makes them apprehensive to engage and move forward. It's your fight to lose at that point.

In every other sport in the world, a foul is a foul regardless of intention. Simply grabbing someone's jersey in a football game, you lose yards. Forget to dribble in basketball? Penalty. Every single eye poke and groin shot should be a point deduction. If you grab the cage to prevent a takedown, you get get put on the ground.

I do think the gloves are a problem and they need to be addressed but once you do that, there's no excuse for not taking points.

 

[Pancake Sprawl]

Can you imagine how stupid not calling accidental fouls would look in other sports? Hockey - slashed the ankle and injured the player but no call because he was going for the puck - hitting the ankle was purely accidental.
NBA - jump up, miss the ball and end up landing on the shooter. Well that's clearly a non-call because he was going for the ball - landing on the guy was an accident. Unless of course it was Draymond though - he most likely wanted to land on the guy

Its total bush league and makes the whole sport look amateur.

while i agree, the problem isn't just the UFC or even MMA. Boxing is the biggest culprit of this. look how certain fighters are allowed to clinch in boxing. excessive clinching is supposed to be illegal but Wlad made a career of doing this over and over and over again. it's not even a real clinch, he's just so deathly afraid of allowing guys to get inside he's literally grabbing the guy before they're even in the clinch. look how obvious this bullshit is in these gifs.

then there's the whole "you can't push" and "you can't hold and hit someone" rules. Tyson Fury breaks both those rules egregiously in a matter of seconds which leads to a KO and the referee does absolutely nothing.

why do i bring this up? because these are the same Athletic Commissions that are supposed to be responsible for enforcing the rules in MMA and boxing has been a mainstream sport for decades now with multiple participants dying or getting life altering brain damage from illegal strikes and nothing has ever been done to tighten up and have more stricter enforcement of the rules.

 

[Mohawk Banditó]

Absolutely. All the other sports give out penalties even it was accidental. This whole warning business is silly and punitive to the recipient of the foul. It’s bush league.

I was at an ammy event in NJ over a decade ago and almost every single eye poke and cage grab was penalized. Only groin strikes rarely got a warning, but I saw like 5 deductions all night.

I think I far prefer that

 

[Mohawk Banditó]

(1) If you are very zoned in on a fight, you probably aren't going to be focused on pointing eyes.

(2) The eye is a very small target, it's hard to hit directly on the eye, let alone poke it.

(3) Hands up trying to poke at the face is going to open you up for takedowns.

(4) Most eye pokes are passive, from being coming into you, rather than you going into them. If you can land a forward moving eye poke, you can probably land a punch, which may be more effective.

Fighters will VERY OFTEN have a plan of attack or specific strike they want to target despite being focused in on fight mode, so no that's not difficult or unusual or anything.

The eye is a cavity, so as long as your fingers hit the face, pushing forward will very frequently sink into them, so it's not as hard as aiming right for the eyes, especially when I consider that rakes work too, not just pokes.

No it's not. Most guards are at face level and any extension is an attempt at distance management, and eye pokes are pretty good at stopping td attempts, since the guy needs to blast forward, but the reaction to eye damage is pulling back

Punches on average are definitely not more effective than an eye poke, especially early on. Damaging the eye is a long term investment for the rest of the fight.

 

[Mohawk Banditó]

I'd rather take a eye poke than a punch from anyone 155 and above.

But that's not the question. When you know that afterwards, you still need to continue defending yourself for another 14 minutes of fighting, would you rather take an eye poke and try to do that with any kind of damaged eyesight, or take a punch that of course you're allowed to roll with or block some of while you're fresh so it's not guaranteed to land flush?

 

[PaddyO'malley]

The master knows to hit the nuts in just the right angle for the opponent to hunch over in pain, and while hunching over to land his head, and even more so, his eyeballs exactly into the already spread out and erect fingers.the master has stratigically placed down below, like falling into the spiked pit in Mortal Kombat.

I must ask, was you also been train by Master Choi?! If so das lit

It also have adding benefits of opening Gate of Resilience for receiver, thus increase #battle endurance/toughness. It was make opponent better combatant after all was saddled-on.

I remember Master Choi he was do this to teach discipline when I was make mistakes in my technique, but only after blow smoke from ital spliff in my face of mine as diversion

 

[Timewarp]

Good question! There's literally no downside to poking opponent's eyes.
If the fight continues then the poked fighter has to continue to fight with compromised vision/pain. And if the fighter has to quit due to vision impairment or overwhelming pain then fans and the org will call him a pussy and a quitter and the poker will in many people's eyes be the winner anyways, like that byron battle guy.

 

[Sean_wongster_wongmastter]

But that's not the question. When you know that afterwards, you still need to continue defending yourself for another 14 minutes of fighting, would you rather take an eye poke and try to do that with any kind of damaged eyesight, or take a punch that of course you're allowed to roll with or block some of while you're fresh so it's not guaranteed to land flush?

I mean if you are allowed to implement defenses (rolling, block, ect.) for the punch, Am I allowed to implement defenses for the eye poke such as blocking the eye poke, or moving my head away from the poking fingers?

To compare a landed eye poke vs. a punch you can dodge, is not really the same.

I'm pretty confident I can still move and fight even if I get poked in the eye. There is a chance I can't do shit if I'm punched.

In a street fight, being punched could result in a 10 minute beatdown if I fall to the ground and get concussed.

In a sanctioned fight, I may or may not get a break from an eye poke (depends on if the ref sees it).

I'd take an eye poke over a punch any day, and we are talking about both landing, not whether or not they land or could land.