(“Revolutionary” new glove? Been there, done that.)

Eye-pokes: They’re devastating, career-threatening, unfairly handled during fights, and mysteriously under-penalized. Due to the open-fingered nature of the gloves, gouging is a unique and unfortunately common problem in MMA. But can anything be done to fix it? According to UFC president Dana White during an appearance on ESPN 710am radio in LA yesterday, the promotion is looking at a new solution — changing the design of the gloves:

“We actually have started to work on a new glove that actually curves your hand. Like the glove is curved like a U, so you can still open your hand, but your fingers don’t point straight out.”

Bruce Lee’s bulky (but badass) mitts in Enter the Dragon immediately come to mind. But is the eye-poke epidemic really a hardware issue? As UFC Hall of Famer/VP of Athletic Development Matt Hughes told BJPenn.com recently, “I don’t see how you can blame it on the gloves. It comes down to the fighters making mistakes with their hands.”

And that’s exactly it. It’s a discipline problem. Why are we blaming the gloves, instead of blaming the professional fighters who blatantly throw their fingers toward the eyes of their opponents, then claim afterwards that it was an attempt at a punch?

(I don’t see a downed opponent. I see a damn *fool*!)

It’s one of the strangest, most arbitrary double-standards of MMA’s Unified Rules — you get five minutes to recover from a strike to the groin, but if you can’t immediately continue after an eye-poke, the fight is over. Considering that the eyes are the balls of the face, it’s a shame that both sets of organs aren’t given equal protection under the law.

Gian Villante was the latest victim of the eye-poke technicality at UFC 159, when he lost a technical decision to Ovince St. Preux after getting gouged 33 seconds into the second round of their prelim scrap. As he explained afterwards, “I couldn’t see for a second. I just blinked my eye to try to get some fluid back in there. I would have been fine 30 seconds later. I thought I had five minutes. All I needed was 10 seconds. But they ended it…I don’t know what was I supposed to say. And if I did know what to say, I’m in the middle of a fight. I’m not going to think, ‘What is the exact rule on what to say when you get poked in the eye?’ I’m going to say exactly how I feel. I can’t see for this second, but give me a second, and I’ll be all right.”

Instead, referee Kevin Mulhall stopped the fight, and the judges scored the action up to that point, giving Villante a loss in his UFC debut. On the bright side, that disappointing moment might have been the last straw in the UFC’s tolerance for some of the sport’s most controversial rules. According to an MMAJunkie report, UFC Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Marc Ratner will make a formal request to change MMA’s eye-poke protocol at the Association of Boxing Commissions’ annual conference in late July. (The ABC is responsible for maintaining the Unified Rules of MMA, and providing uniform standards for MMA among the state and tribal athletic commissions.)

As Ratner puts it:

(Photo via @alanbelcherufc)

As we mentioned yesterday, Alan Belcher is currently recovering from the nasty eye-poke he received from Michael Bisping at UFC 159, and had to receive eight stitches in his right eyelid — which sounds like he got off easy when you consider how absolutely awful that thing looked on Saturday. (I was bracing myself for a gruesome spray of half-and-half.) No word yet on a timetable for Belcher’s return to competition; let’s just hope this isn’t a career-ender.

Previously: MMA Photo Tribute: 16 Seriously Messed-Up Eyes

(Props: elytko via BloodyElbow)

Not sure if was intentional, but Jake Shields‘s fingers introduced themselves to Georges St. Pierre‘s left eyeball on Saturday night, causing an injury that’s still bugging the UFC welterweight champ. Greg Jackson spoke to Sherdog after UFC 129, and let it be known that GSP’s performance might have been more impressive if not for that poke:

“Georges’s eye was pretty badly injured — he told me that in between rounds — and Georges is a very timing-based fighter, and so when one of your eyes is injured your depth-perception gets off pretty significantly and it’s very hard for you to time the shots because it’s hard to see where they are coming. I felt he did really, really well considering he fought with one eye, I’m really proud of him for fighting through that. We’ll try to get better and do better the next time, but I really feel the injury played a significant role…he was just missing a little bit, he was just off a little bit on some of those big shots, and I feel like if he would have had both eyes he could have landed those shots and could have done a lot more damage.”

Responding to the argument that GSP should have finished Jake anyway, you know, because he’s so awesome and Jake Shields sucks, Jackson didn’t mince words:

(Photo courtesy of UFC.com.)

Finally, a little goddamned justice around here. MMA Junkie reports that Kevin Burns and Anthony Johnson — whose first fight at July’s “Silva vs. Irvin” event ended in a controversial TKO win for Burns after Johnson dropped in pain due to repeated eye-pokes — will get a do-over at the Ultimate Fighter 8 finale (December 13th, location TBA). Both fighters have agreed to the fight and it should be finalized in the next few days.

Burns was suffering from a hand injury at the time of his first meeting with Johnson, and was unable to strike with a closed fist, which led to his fingers finding their way into Johnson’s eyeball several times. As if the laser surgery and stitches required to fix his detached retina wasn’t agonizing enough, Johnson recently lost an appeal filed with the Nevada State Athletic Commission to have his loss to Burns overturned. So this is really good news. The only question is, will Steve Mazzagatti be reffing the rematch as well? Nah, too risky…

(Kevin Burns shows off his flawless gouging technique. Photo courtesy of UFC.com.)

It’s probably not the way he wanted to make UFC history, but Anthony Johnson has officially become the first fighter to lose a fight in the Octagon via eye-pokes. After being handed an idiotic TKO loss at July’s “Silva vs. Irvin” card against Kevin Burns — who poked Johnson in the eyes multiple times throughout their fight until Rumble collapsed to the mat in agony during the third round — Johnson filed an appeal with the Nevada State Athletic Commission to have the result overturned to a DQ victory, or at least a no-contest. Unfortunately, it was rejected:

“Based on advice from the Nevada Attorney General’s office, the appeal was rejected due to lack of remedy,” Kizer revealed to MMAFrenzy.com.

Horseshit. Are they saying they have no way of changing results after the fact? That Steve Mazzagatti‘s decisions can never be overruled by a higher authority? Johnson had to undergo laser surgery to repair a detached retina and needed stitches in his eye — it would have been nice for the NSAC to acknowledge that they don’t condone what he had to go through. Still, Johnson has managed to keep a positive attitude through the entire experience. As he told TAGG Radio, “They can keep the loss on my record if they want to because I know I will come back better and stronger next time.”