Urijah Faber, Travis Browne and 5 Pokiest Eye Pokes in Recent UFC History
If UFC 203 felt a little familiar to you, maybe that was on account of all the eye-poking.
When Urijah Faber caught Jimmie Rivera, it wasn't his first eye-poke rodeo. It wasn't even his first eye-poke rodeo with a guy named Rivera.
And in the co-main event, you had infamous pokester Travis Browne going ham on Fabricio Werdum's ocular cavity. He was in up to his second knuckle.
Both of these incidents got us thinking here in the newsroom. There have been quite a few notable eye pokes recently (after all, if the ref isn't going to penalize you, why stop?). Browne and Faber in particular have remarkable bodies of work in this area.
So what, then, are the pokiest eye pokes in recent UFC memory? Who did them, and what happened? Read on for far more information than you could ever want or need on this particular topic.
Pokes are ranked based on pokiness. What makes a poke more pokey than others? Visual damage, for one, but also its potential impact on the bout.
5. Urijah Faber vs. Jimmie Rivera, UFC 203
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The eye poke that catalyzed this whole wonderful slideshow.
The poke came in the early part of the third and final round, when it was clear to viewers Faber was probably losing on the judges' scorecards (note: He was). Faber gave Jimmie Rivera, who is 10 years Faber's junior, an open-handed slap. And, oh, what have we here, terribly sorry, I seem to have jammed my index finger into your eyeball!
As you'll recall, this occurred not long after Faber landed a low blow on Rivera too. Way to mix up your cheap shots, California Kid.
"It was black," Rivera told broadcaster Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour the Monday after the fight (h/t Guilherme Cruz of MMA Fighting). "Once you get poked, until after I got out and was speaking to [color commentator Joe] Rogan, I started getting a little vision back. Half of it. Half down I could see, very, very blurry, and half was black."
That doesn't sound good. What sounds better is probably the unanimous-decision victory Rivera walked away with.
4. Travis Browne vs. Fabricio Werdum, UFC 203
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As if the cover photo wasn't graphic enough, here comes MMA photographer Esther Lin, who tweeted an image not long after the fight that shows how remarkably deep Browne's finger really went.
"You guys wanna see something gross?" she tweeted. You can make up your own mind on that one. You've been warned.
The weirdest part about this one is that this wasn't even the weirdest part of this fight. Not even close, really. Werdum opened the bout by landing a flying side kick (think Michelangelo from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and you'll have a pretty solid mental picture). Then, Browne called timeout after suffering an inadvertent compound finger break early in the bout. Timeouts are not allowed in MMA.
And this is to say nothing of what happened after the fight, when a scuffle broke out between Werdum and everyone's favorite trainer—Edmond Tarverdyan.
Werdum won the bout by unanimous decision, and he sure went through enough to get there.
3. Urijah Faber vs. Francisco Rivera, UFC 181
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As with The Other Guy Named Rivera Who Faber Poked In The Eye, Faber was arguably losing to Francisco Rivera when this happened.
Only this time, the poke, which referee Mario Yamasaki did not penalize, resulted in Faber's submission win.
Seconds after the poke, Rivera went down. Faber jumped on him and locked in a choke. Rivera, being blind at the time, felt he had no choice but to tap.
Rivera later needed surgery to repair the injured eye.
After reviewing the incident, Rivera appealed the decision to the Nevada State Athletic Commission, hoping it could be changed to a no-contest. Nothing doing. Appeal rejected.
Faber, for his part, acknowledged the foul and said he wasn't happy about the way he won. He didn't give back the "W," though. Rivera's eyes should be more careful if they don't want to get imploded, amirite?
If memory serves, the poke was pretty blatant. But what do I know? I'm not a member of the Nevada State Athletic Commission.
2. Jon Jones vs. Glover Teixeira, UFC 172
4 of 5Jon Jones is—or was, before UFC 203, anyway—considered the reigning master of the eye stuff among active fighters.
In recent memory, his biggest eye-poke moment came in April 2014, when he defended what was then his lineal light heavyweight title against Glover Teixeira.
But as you can see from this lifetime-achievement reel, it was far from his only transgression. Jones is a brilliant fighter, but he likes to try and get cute in there sometimes. One of the things he likes to do is paw at people with an open hand and, in the process, rake the snot out of their eyes.
"I realize that I do it," Jones said of the pokes, per Dave Doyle of MMA Fighting. "I realize the criticism that I got from it. It's not on purpose."
Go ahead and believe Jones if you care to. I, for one, am going to believe my own eyes. Please don't poke them.
1. Travis Browne vs. Matt Mitrione, UFC Fight Night 81
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AHHHHHHHH!
If you need to be told why this is the worst eye poke in recent UFC memory, then you are simply not looking at the accompanying photo, which is right there.
Do you see it? Mitrone's right eye area? It's kinda puffed up.
That's the work of not one but two big eye pokes from Big Dirty, which is what I call Travis Browne as of right this very moment.
And once again, we have Browne to thank for a real piece of eye-poke work. This came in January, and although his poking didn't get it done against Werdum, this one led to a TKO win for Big Dirty.
Like Francisco Rivera before him, Mitrione appealed the loss, and like Rivera that appeal fell on deaf ears.
What caused the swelling? A fractured orbital bone was to blame. And like Rivera once again, Mitrione, who is now fighting under the Bellator banner, needed surgery to fix the issue.
You probably don't even need me to point out these similarities anymore. You probably don't even need me to tell you referee Gary Forman did not penalize Browne (NSFW language) in any meaningful way.
In any case, this one goes down not only as the pokiest eye poke—or pokes, rather—in recent memory. It rates pretty high on the all-time list as well.
Scott Harris writes about MMA for Bleacher Report. For more stuff like this, follow Scott on Twitter.
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