UFC Ref, Victimized Fighter Oblivious to Guy Digging Out Eyeball
By Kyle Koster
One of the things UFC tries to do — and for good reason — is eliminate any eye-gouging. It’s not great to have fighters popping each other’s eyes out on the reg. But for some reason, the ref working last night’s Jake Matthews-Li Jingliang match at UFC 221 opted to, uh, look the other way as Jingliang dug for gold in Matthew’s eye socket.
One of the worst eye gouges I’ve ever seen - and the ref did absolutely nothing about it. #UFC221 pic.twitter.com/YFH7PhpjNH
— Justin Hartling ? PAX East (@justinhartling) February 11, 2018
Yeah, get in there, dude.
Believe it or not, Matthews, who recovered to defeat Jingliang, claimed he didn’t even notice.
"“In the heat of the fight, you don’t realise that stuff. There was a couple of fingers in the glove, but in the heat of the fight, you’ll do anything to win/ I can’t fault that. No hard feelings at all.”"
Ah yes, the old axiom. If a severe eye gouge happens in the ring and no one notices, does it really happen at all?