Miami — Earlier this week, Phil “Mr. Wonderful” Davis stumped for the idea of fighters busted for PEDs seeing results overturned to a DQ (loss for the cheater, win for the victim). Jim Miller would take that one step further, and include fights ended early due to fouls like eye pokes.
Referencing PRIDE, the legendary Japanese organization that levied immediate fines for fouls, Miller noted during the UFC 314 media day on Wednesday that “if the fighter that was poked was unable to continue, the fighter who committed the foul lost. They were DQ’d.”
The man with the most fights in UFC history, facing off against Chase Hooper on Saturday, also pointed out that fighters who endure pokes rarely go on to win those bouts. “I believe we need to treat them as a foul. We all know how to keep our hands closed.” Miller believes that fighters being tentative, not wanting to get hit and pushing opponents away, are often the culprit behind pokes in the modern UFC.
Asked whether he would be open to seeing fight-ending eye pokes turned into disqualifications, as they were in PRIDE, Miller was on board.
“Yeah I would. I would. And honestly if that was the case, if you knew that you were going to get disqualified for a poke, I guarantee that you’re going to see a dramatic drop in the amount of pokes that you see,” he told Cageside Press, adding that “accidents do happen, it does happen.”
Miller admitted that he’s been the culprit of an eye poke himself, and would have accepted a DQ loss.
“I have been close to poking people in the eye in grappling situations, and when I fought Donald Cerrone the first time, he hurt me to the body in the very first exchange in that fight. And I remember exactly where we were in the octagon, he had me against the cage in his corner and I tried to shove him away because I wanted some f*cking space. And I felt my finger go into his eye a little bit, and he hit me really, really hard right after that.”
“Had the ref stopped the fight for it, hey man, I’m a big boy, I’m a grown man. It was my f*ck up,” Miller exclaimed. “That’s why it happened. I was hurt, I didn’t want to be in that situation. And if we’re going to have rules, we should follow them. Honestly I do believe if we’re going to start actually treating the foul like a foul, then it should be something that causes a disqualification.”
Watch Jim Miller’s full UFC 314 media day appearance above.
