{"id":640596,"date":"2026-04-30T13:13:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T13:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/640596\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T13:13:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T13:13:09","slug":"jorge-masvidal-suggests-financial-penalty-for-eye-pokes-in-mma","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/640596\/","title":{"rendered":"Jorge Masvidal Suggests Financial Penalty for Eye Pokes in MMA"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t<img width=\"780\" height=\"439\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-1232509993-e1777549972282.jpg\" class=\"attachment-featured-image size-featured-image wp-post-image\" alt=\"Jorge Masvidal\"   decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>Jorge Masvidal has a proposal for eye pokes.<\/p>\n<p>Longtime <a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/ufc\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">UFC<\/a> welterweight contender Jorge Masvidal suggested a financial penalty for eye pokes in MMA, fining fighters 20% of their purse.<\/p>\n<p>Masvidal spoke on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=UGI1NjpOMKU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external nofollow\">\u201cDeep Waters\u201d podcast<\/a> about his disdain for eye pokes in MMA, <a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/ufc\/rose-namajunas-radical-suggestion-eye-pokes\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">echoing what former UFC women\u2019s strawweight champion Rose Namajunas recently said<\/a>. In Masvidal\u2019s opinion, the way to fix the eye-poke problem in the sport is to fine fighters a portion of their purse, with Masvidal pegging that number at 20%.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve never eye poked anybody in my whole career. I\u2019ve got 52, 53 fights, so there is something that it is in our hands. I know that things could happen in a fight and you could get poked by accident, but a lot of times as a referee, we can tell when it\u2019s intentional or when this guy\u2019s just doing this stupid (expletive), you know a little bit Jon Jones-ish, every time you come in I\u2019m going to give you a little eye check. Just step back with my hands open. Immediate point deduction, yellow card. Take money from the purse, too. Take 20 percent,\u201d Masvidal said (via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmafighting.com\/ufc\/484899\/morning-report-jorge-masvidal-wants-20-percent-purse-penalty-for-eye-pokes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external nofollow\">MMAFighting.com<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>Jorge Masvidal Wants to Hit Fighters Where it Hurts<\/p>\n<p>Mixed martial artists are inherently prizefighters, so as far as Masvidal goes, the way to punish them for poking their opponents in the eye is to hit it where it hurts the most: their wallet.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHit them where it hurts because I\u2019m a fighter and you immediately say anything about my paycheck, I\u2019m going to be like, \u2018Oh, you\u2019re saying if I\u2019m late here I\u2019m going to get deducted?\u2019 I\u2019ll never be late. But if you don\u2019t say that, I\u2019ll show up whenever I want, you know?\u201d Masvidal said.<\/p>\n<p>Eye pokes have become a big issue in MMA, with the outcome of many fights changing because some athletes can\u2019t keep their hands closed. But if the fighters start to get fined and lose money, perhaps this is the change needed to fix the problem.<\/p>\n<p>Jorge Masvidal Rumored for UFC Comeback<\/p>\n<p>The 41-year-old Masvidal has been rumored to make his comeback to the UFC this year after three years away from the promotion. Since he left the UFC in 2023, Masvidal has competed in boxing, fighting rival Nate Diaz in 2024. He has not competed in combat sports since then, but he has been linked to a UFC comeback sometime this year.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/sports\/ufc\/conor-mcgregor-return-5-potential-opponents\/?mrfhud=true\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">We recently linked Masvidal to a potential comeback bout as UFC superstar Conor McGregor<\/a>, who is also making his own comeback to the Octagon after several years away. It seems like the UFC is going with Max Holloway as McGregor\u2019s opponent, instead, but there are plenty of other potential opponents for Masvidal inside the Octagon. Despite being in his 40s and having not fought in several years, he is still a huge name and someone who was a proven pay-per-view seller before he left the UFC last time. If and when his next fight is booked, look for Masvidal to get a high placement on whatever card he returns on. Hopefully, we get some clarity soon on Masvidal\u2019s comeback, as he\u2019s a popular fighter and also a very exciting one to watch compete.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/author\/mmadammartin\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Adam Martin<\/a> Adam Martin is a sports journalist with over 15 years of experience. He has a speciality in MMA, while also covering the Big 4 Sports. Adam is currently a contributor to Heavy.com, with previous experience working for The Toronto Star, Sportsnet, theScore, Bookies, BJPenn.com, and MMAOddsbreaker.com. <a href=\"https:\/\/heavy.com\/author\/mmadammartin\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">More about Adam Martin<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Jorge Masvidal has a proposal for eye pokes. Longtime UFC welterweight contender Jorge Masvidal suggested a financial&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":640597,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-640596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=640596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}