Referee Herb Dean shares significant eye poke rule changes following Tom Aspinall/Ciryl Gane controversy

Renowned Mixed Martial Arts referee Herb Dean recently revealed details of recent rules meetings between top officials.

Tom Aspinall’s first undisputed heavyweight title defense ended in disaster after he was accidentally eye poked in both eyes by Ciryl Gane in the first round of their UFC 321 fight. After taking five full minutes to attempt to recover from the infraction, Aspinall was deemed unable to continue competing due to loss of vision in his right eye.

Aspinall vs. Gane is expected to be rescheduled for a rematch at a later date.

In the aftermath of UFC 321, eye pokes have returned to the forefront of hot debate among fans, pundits, and fighters. Officials recently convened to discuss potentially taking significant reform on how referees handle incidents such as what occurred in the UFC 321 main event.

Herb Dean hints that MMA referees will start deducting points more frequently after eye pokes

In a recent appearance on the Believe You Me podcast, longtime referee Herb Dean revealed the details of recent rules meetings between top MMA officials.

“So far, what we’re talking about is, we’ve made rules,” Dean said. “So we made a rule it’s a foul to extend the fingers towards the eyes. That’s the rule we’ve already had in place. So that rule has been there, but we haven’t been enforcing it. So we’re going to move forward on that.

“The other thing about MMA is, I mean, we have a one-point sport. 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,” Dean continued. “That’s something that’s going to happen.” (h/t MMA Fighting)

Dean will officiate multiple fights this weekend at UFC 322, featuring Jack Della Maddalena vs. Islam Makhachev in the main event.