MIAMI – Jim Miller is on board with big penalizations for eye pokes.
Eye pokes have caused many controversial moments in the UFC as of late, most recently when Henry Cejudo was on the receiving end of a fight-ending one against Song Yadong in the UFC Fight Night 252 headliner. Cejudo was upset with referee Jason Herzog’s handling of the situation, which resulted in a loss on his record. Cejudo has struggled with his vision since, and plans on competing only one more time before retiring.
Miller (38-18 MMA, 27-17 UFC), who takes on Chase Hooper (15-3-1 MMA, 7-3 UFC) on Saturday’s UFC 314 prelims from Kaseya Center (pay-per-view, ESPN, ESPN+), was asked if he’d be OK for fight-ending eye pokes to result in disqualification losses.
Miller wants to see them treated as a foul.
“Yeah I would – I would,” Miller told MMA Junkie and other reporters Wednesday at UFC 314 media day. “And honestly if that was the case, if you knew that you were going to get disqualified for a poke, I guarantee that you’re going to see a dramatic drop in the amount of pokes that you see. Accidents do happen. It does happen.”
Miller admits he’s been guilty of committing eye pokes himself, and would accept getting disqualified.
“I have been close to poking people in the eye in grappling situations, and when I fought Donald Cerrone the first time, he hurt me to the body in the very first exchange of that fight,” Miller said. “I remember exactly where we were in the octagon, he had me against the cage in his corner, and I tried to shove him away because I wanted some f*cking space, and I felt my finger go into his eye a little bit, and he hit me really, really hard right after that.
“Had the ref stopped the fight for it – hey man, I’m a big boy. I’m a grown man. It was my f*ck up. That’s why it happened. I was hurt, I didn’t want to be in that situation, and if we’re going to have rules, we should follow them. Honestly, I do believe that if we’re going to start actually treating the foul like a foul, then it should be something that causes a disqualification.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 314.
