“We’re working on it. But what are you going to do?” echoed Dana White’s words back in 2013 after UFC 166 after 185fer Tim Boetsch was poked twice by C.B Dollaway, hanging in the air like an unanswered question for nearly twelve years. The UFC head honcho’s shoulder-shrugging response to the eye-poking epidemic has aged about as well as milk left on a summer sidewalk, especially in the wake of former double champ Henry Cejudo becoming the latest victim of the sport’s most persistent technical foul.

In the Octagon—where blood, sweat, and championship dreams collide—a single extended finger continues to be the unexpected villain. The irony isn’t lost on fans: in a sport where competitors train to withstand head kicks and submission holds, it’s often the incidental poke that changes destinies. Enter the silver-tongued analyst Chael Sonnen. Taking to Instagram, ‘The Bad Guy’ addressed his 963,000 followers with characteristic directness. The post, featuring footage from Cejudo’s fight against Song Yadong, showcased what looks increasingly like UFC’s Achilles’ heel.

“Cover the glove,” proclaimed Sonnen, cutting through years of complicated debate with surgical precision. His solution isn’t wrapped in technical jargon or marketing talk—just a straightforward fix that would transform dangerous fingertips into harmless rounded surfaces. Sonnen’s two-decade career stands as a testament to his argument—a 22-year stretch remarkably free of the eye-jabbing incidents that have written unwanted chapters in many fighters’ stories. The solution, as Sonnen suggests, might be right at their fingertips—if only the UFC would grasp it.

“51 men, 5 days a week we sparred. Of all those rounds, of all that sparring, I never touched anybody’s eye,” said the retired fighter. “What is it about my hand? Why does my hand not go into the eye? If you want something to go away, you punish it differently. There are only two rules in the sport. Don’t kick the son of a b—h when he is down, and don’t poke him in the eye. If you do either, it’s a disqualification. Or, quit talking about it and accept that it’s part of the sport.”

Sonnen’s remarks would be holding more weight than before, thanks to the same old issue having been given new light. However, the promotion did introduce a brand new glove design back in April 2024 but now has officially abandoned them, making a full-time return to the previous design starting with UFC Vegas 102. UFC commentator John Gooden confirmed the change at the start of the broadcast.

“One note starting tonight and moving forward, all fighters will return to using the old gloves, not the ones recently introduced,” Gooden announced. When the UFC unveiled the updated gloves, the goal was to reduce hand injuries and eye pokes while maintaining dexterity to ensure fighter performance wasn’t affected. However, the feedback was largely negative, and the gloves failed to produce the desired results. Some speculated that knockouts had declined since their introduction, though with a limited sample size, it remains unclear whether the gloves played a role.

“There were a lot of complaints,” Dana White admitted in November. “We originally created these gloves to stop eye pokes, and we had good intentions with them. But they didn’t work out. People weren’t happy with them.”

But the central theme persists! New gloves or not, the damage is still unresolved. And this can be evaluated based on Henry Cejudo’s comments days after the incident at UFC Fight Night 252: “I’m still seeing double. Even as I’m watching the fight right now on the screen, my eye is still not good.” The 38-year-old revealed during an episode of the ‘Pound 4 Pound’ podcast. “Luckily, I saw the ophthalmologist today and this is what she said, ‘If that pinky would have hit you in the pupil, you would be blind.’ I have a dent in my eye. It got freaking ruptured. It’s damaged, man.”

For quite some time, Sonnen has been giving his thoughts on various topics revolving around the UFC. Therefore, it was only about time that he shared his thoughts on this one. The fact that all he talked about was solving the eye-poking issue, and did not name Henry Cejudo, would not have surprised many. After all, ‘Uncle Chael’ has already given his thoughts on whether Cejudo was in the right to complain about his injury on a specific level.

Chael Sonnen criticizes Henry Cejudo for not “willing to walk through fire” after eye-poke

Following UFC Fight Night 252, questions arose about the severity of Henry Cejudo’s injury. After suffering the eye poke, referee Jason Herzog called for a technical decision in favor of Song Yadong. However, Cejudo took the full designated stoppage time of five minutes to recover. Initially, the former champ chose to continue. But he ultimately decided against it at the start of the 4th round owing to the severity of his injury. The 135lbs legend has since shed light on the true extent of his injury, explaining the uncertainty he faced at the moment. However, Chael Sonnen wasn’t convinced and showed little sympathy for Cejudo’s handling of the situation.

“I’m essentially accusing possibly the greatest combat athlete of all time of cheating, of faking,” said Sonnen on the Good Guy/Bad Guy show with co-host Daniel Cormier. “That is just so unlike Henry. I mean, truly so unlike Henry in the way that he did play it. This is a guy who has walked through fire many times. This is a guy who walked through fire at 20 years old to become an Olympic Champion. It didn’t seem like he was willing to walk through fire this night. That was not like the Henry Cejudo that I’ve seen in the past. As far as I can say it.”

Knowing the severity of Cejudo’s injury now may have convinced the former fighter to put out the video. Chael Sonnen’s insights helped to highlight the plight that comes with eye poking. Whether the same gets rectified in the future remains to be seen. What are your views on the horrors of eye-poking in UFC? Let us know in the comment section below!