Tom Aspinall: UFC referees ‘not been enforcing’ eye poke punishments, says Herb Dean

Referees and athletic commissions in the United States meet regularly to discuss rules and officiating in MMA.

It is at the referee’s discretion whether they deem an eye poke is intentional or not, which affects the resulting punishment.

Dean says deducting a point from an opponent, regardless of intention, has not been regular practise from referees in the UFC or wider MMA world, but they are permitted to do it.

“This right here is a dangerous foul and somebody’s going to keep doing a dangerous action,” Dean said.

“We should start taking points by them doing that action before it actually happens to hurt somebody.

“The other thing about MMA is, I mean, we have a one-point sport,” Dean added.

“The majority of three-round fights, what’s the score? 29-28.

“So you take one point, you’ve taken a majority of wins and turned it into a draw. But we’re going to have to do something, so that’s one of the things we’ve thought about that we’re going to be doing.

“That’s something that’s going to happen.”