{"id":131204,"date":"2025-09-09T12:39:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T12:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/131204\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T12:39:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T12:39:08","slug":"whittaker-sick-of-unpunished-eye-pokes-consequences-need-to-be-dire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/131204\/","title":{"rendered":"Whittaker sick of unpunished eye pokes: \u2018Consequences need to be dire\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Nassourdine Imavov pulled off a big win in front of a hometown crowd at UFC Paris last weekend, taking <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-results\/385116\/ufc-paris-results-live-streaming-updates-imavov-vs-borralho\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a solid decision win<\/a> over Caio Borralho to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/ufc-results\/387805\/ufc-paris-nassourdine-imavov-not-worried-about-getting-skipped-for-title-shot-no-one-did-what-i-did\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">solidify his position<\/a> as a top contender for the next middleweight title shot.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Imavov\u2019s performance was technically impressive, if not the most exciting win we\u2019ve 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 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=IkmUQroj3XY\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">his MMA Arcade podcast.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cEye pokes need to be addressed,\u201d Whittaker said. \u201cThey need to be addressed \u2026 I remember the ref coming in, giving [Imavov] the hard the hard warning. And then [putting his hands] straight out like this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cHis hands are open straight away. Like, that\u2019s how he gauges distance. That that\u2019s just what he does. He\u2019s still pointing out. Like, instantly. Guy made zero zero changes to anything from that hard warning.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cEye pokes are so hard,\u201d Whittaker continued. \u201cBecause when you get eye poked, it doesn\u2019t matter whether it\u2019s hard or not, your vision blurs or doubles. It just it just puts you off so much, so much. It\u2019s so hard to deal with.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">\u201cI think the consequences need to be a little bit more dire. One poke can change a fight easily, and it\u2019s not just him. There\u2019s a lot of people. It needs to be addressed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">We\u2019ve been watching fighters get eye poked repeatedly in fights with nary a point being taken away <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mmamania.com\/2025\/2\/25\/24372492\/its-not-the-gloves-ufc-veteran-jim-miller-suggests-point-and-purse-deductions-for-eye-pokes\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">for years.<\/a> It\u2019s at a point now where you know you\u2019ve 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\u2019s kind of surprising we don\u2019t see even more fouls than we do.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Until someone gets permanently blinded on live TV, we don\u2019t expect to see changes. And even then, we\u2019d give it 50\/50 odds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nassourdine Imavov pulled off a big win in front of a hometown crowd at UFC Paris last weekend,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,638,82,702],"class_list":["post-131204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}