Dominick Cruz has a theory about eye pokes, and it’s the most Dominick Cruz theory imaginable. If your opponent’s finger ends up in your eyeball, you should have moved your head. He laid it out on his Love & War podcast this week, and the timing matters. Ciryl Gane defends the UFC heavyweight title against Josh Hokit at UFC 334 next month, and Gane’s last two opponents have both accused him of cheating.
Cruz put the blame on the guy getting poked. “If you could poke me in the eye, that’s my problem,” he said, adding that he and TJ Dillashaw see it the same way. His verdict on Gane was blunt: “I think that’s why he’s not a cheater.”
I’ll give Cruz this much. Few people alive have earned the right to lecture anyone about defense. His whole career ran on constant movement and footwork, and he made a living by refusing to stand in front of the guy trying to hit him. Bloody Elbow noted that he rarely got poked because of that style, which makes sense to anyone who ever watched an opponent swing at the spot where Cruz used to be. When he says hitting his head is hard, he’s describing his career accurately.
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He’s still wrong about Gane.
The Cruz Standard Only Fits Cruz
Cruz is grading the whole sport on his own curve. He’s essentially saying that if you aren’t a bantamweight defensive savant, the open hand coming at your face is on you. By that logic, every low blow is a footwork problem and every shot to the back of the head is a posture problem. That’s the Moe Howard defense. Sure, Curly could have ducked, but nobody watched The Three Stooges and decided Curly was the problem.
The rulebook already settled this. Fighters are supposed to be penalized for extending their fingers, and the reason is simple. The guy throwing the hand controls the hand. The guy getting poked controls nothing except how fast he can blink.
Look at the Gane File
This would be a fun barstool argument if the stakes were small. They aren’t. Gane said earlier this year that he was trying to push Tom Aspinall’s face when he accidentally poked the former champion in the eye. Pushing a man’s face with an open hand is a weird hobby for a heavyweight, and the bill landed on Aspinall. The fight was over a year ago, and he still hasn’t been able to get back in the Octagon because of the injuries he suffered that night.
Then came Alex Pereira in June. Before that fight, Gane was adamant that he wouldn’t change his style, even though people have been criticizing him for fouls for years. He won, and Pereira has spent the time since complaining that Herb Dean never penalized Gane for landing punches to the back of his head. Two opponents in a row walked away saying Gane cheated.
I’ll take Cruz at his word that Gane isn’t sitting in a dark room plotting to blind people. Honestly, I’d almost prefer it if he were. I love a real villain, and a guy who openly fights dirty and dares you to stop him at least gives you a story. An accident that keeps happening is a habit, though. And when a fighter hears years of criticism and announces he won’t adjust, calling it an accident starts sounding like a loophole. Whether he means it matters a lot less than where his fingers keep pointing.
Herb Dean Gets a Cruz Roast Too
The best part of Cruz’s podcast had nothing to do with eyeballs. Dean has been eating loud boos at UFC events since Pereira’s complaints went public, and Cruz has zero sympathy. “I don’t feel bad for Herb Dean at all because we get booed all the time,” he said, before adding, “At least share the wealth.”
That’s a great line, and it accidentally proves my point. Referees are the ones who enforce the extended-fingers rule. If the people in the cage actually called it, nobody would need Cruz’s head movement theory. The finger would get flagged before anyone had to debate whose fault the eyeball was.
Cruz’s take also lets everyone off the hook at once. Gane isn’t a cheater, the ref isn’t the issue, and the guy with the scratched cornea should have slipped better. That’s tidy. It also ignores the one guy whose behavior keeps putting him in these headlines.
Hokit, for what it’s worth, believes Dana White is secretly rooting for him, though White hasn’t said anything like that in public. If Hokit wants a real ally, he should skip White and hope for a referee who watches Gane’s fingers the whole fight. Cruz’s advice is to move your head. My advice for UFC 334 is that the man in the middle keeps one eye on Gane’s open hands from the first bell.
