White: We gotta stop Jones’ palming and eye pokes
Dan White: “We gotta stop that stuff. The opening of the hands and putting the hands on the face. It’s something bad, but you know, it happens with guys who have reach.”
Jon Jones put on an extraordinary performance of mixed martial arts at UFC 172. However, fans were dismayed that his open handed pawing was dangerously close to being an eye attack.
Jones in fact has a long and unfortunate tradition of holding his outstretched fingers near his opponent’s eyes.
In a post fight interview with Ariel Helwani, UFC president Dana White addressed the issue.
“We gotta stop that stuff,” said White. “The opening of the hands and putting the hands on the face. It’s something bad, but you know, it happens with guys who have reach. They do that a lot.”
(1:18 mark)