The UFC Seattle main event ended with a controversial win for Yadong over Henry Cejudo after an eye poke. Although Yadong was regretful about his actions, former UFC fighter Michael Bisping said there should be consequences for that in the UFC.
The accidental foul took place in the third round, and Cejudo took a brief break to recover before resuming the fight, but the fight was soon called off because Cejudo admitted he couldn’t see anything. The referee ruled the fight over, and Yadong was awarded the win via technical decision. Although Yadong apologized for this illegal move, Michael Bisping believes the fighter should be penalized for this eye poke.
“No. 1, I think we should have had a point deducted,” Bisping said on his YouTube channel. “And I don’t say that because I want to see Song Yadong’s career jeopardized or anything like that. No, I like Song Yadong, I’m very good friends with Urijah Faber, and I have a lot of respect for the whole team.
“But the eye pokes, people need to know that there’s goddamn f*cking consequences. Eye pokes are terrible. You know all about my history with the eyes. Eye pokes are bad. If you start taking points, people will stop stretching their f*cking fingers out. Then when the third round started, and there was only a minute left. Song Yadong had his fingers out and so did Henry Cejudo, and I’m like, why isn’t the ref saying anything?”
According to the scorecard, a point taken from Yadong due to the eye poke could have leveled the playing field.
“Something needs to be done,” Bisping continued. “Stricter penalties need to be in place. There needs to be immediate consequences for people poking fighters in the eye. It’s as simple as that.”
Although UFC CEO Dana White says there will be no rematch, Bisping believes a rematch gives Cejudo a fair chance to redeem himself before his career comes to an end.
“Song Yadong was declared the victor because they went to the scorecards and he should have won that, two rounds to one, maybe,” Bisping said. “Maybe even all three rounds, he was fast, he was quick, he stopped all the takedowns, and the boxing was beautiful. It’s a shame that it ended like that.
“They say they’re going to run it back. Henry said he wants to run it back, Song said he’ll do that, it was his idea. But will Henry Cejudo do that at 38 years old? I really don’t know.”
