Jim Miller has zero tolerance for what Ciryl Gane did at UFC 321.
This past Saturday, Gane challenged Tom Aspinall for the heavyweight title in the main event of UFC 321 in Abu Dhabi, looking good early before poking Aspinall in the eyes in the first round, resulting in a no-contest. The result angered and disappointed fans and fighters, but perhaps no one was more animated about what happened than future UFC Hall of Famer Jim Miller, who took to social media on Sunday to rage against the entire fiasco.
“I am very agitated, and I think you know exactly where this is going,” Miller said in an Instagram post. “I’m going to share two screenshots of the unified MMA rules at the end of this, and you tell me what the f*ck is going on. … If only, if only stupid, dumb, professional MMA fighters could control our fingers, right?
“Eye gouging, eye poking, is a foul. And if that foul is done with intention, then the fighter that commits the foul gets disqualified if the fight can’t continue. In most cases, there’s some silly sh*t in there as well. But it is up to the referee, and probably the commission on the side of the octagon, to decide whether it was intentional or not. And it never seems to be f*cking intentional.
“I’ve had my vision permanently affected by eye pokes. It doesn’t affect my ability to fight or see anything close, really. It’s more quality of life stuff — it’s much harder to see a target with my bow nowadays. Boo hoo. [But] the only way we’re going to stop this thing is if the fighters that are committing the foul actually end up getting punished for the foul. That’s the only way this is going to stop. It’s not a glove issue; it is an issue of culture and the fighters.”
In support of Miller’s point, much of the backlash to the UFC 321 incident has been leveled at Aspinall for declaring himself unable to continue. While Miller is angry about Gane fouling Aspinall, huge portions of the MMA fanbase — including fellow fighters and UFC CEO Dana White — have been critical of the heavyweight champion for not continuing, which frustrates Miller.
“The person who was poked in the eye is always the p*ssy, is always the bad guy, is always the loser for not choosing to continue,” Miller said. “It’s never the person that commits the foul that gets looked at in a negative light, no. They’re never punished. No, no, no. It’s the other p*ssy that decides, ‘Hey, I can’t f*cking see, now. And now I’m the bad guy, for telling the doctors that I can’t see because my opponent couldn’t close his fist.’ This aggravates me, clearly. The refs have had the power to stop this for years, and they have chosen not to.
“I’ve known a lot of you for a long f*cking time, and I believe there are a lot of good people that are associated with this sport, but this is nonsense. It is absolute f*cking nonsense. Points get taken away way quicker for groin shots! We have quality protectors on the market; there are high-quality f*cking cups on the market. I’ve been lifted off the ground wearing a metal Thai cup with nothing, didn’t feel nothing, and the other person is moving. The eye poke stuff is all on the person who throws the eye poke. All of it. That’s easy! It’s f*cking easy!”
Miller is currently the longest-tenured UFC fighter and holds several records in the promotion, most notably as the man with the most fights and most wins in UFC history (46 and 27, respectively). And as Miller noted, despite having nearly 7 and a half hours of octagon time, he hasn’t had any issue with repeatedly fouling his opponents, so if he can do it, everyone else can, too.
“I’ve shared the list before,” Miller said. “I’ve shared the list of the guys who have been in the octagon the longest, and none of them have poked somebody in the eye. None of them! If we spent the most time in the octagon, throwing punches at opponents at the highest level of the sport, shouldn’t there be some eye pokes coming from guys like myself or Frankie [Edgar], or [Raphael] dos Anjos, or Clay [Guida], or all these other guys? Shouldn’t that be the way it goes? The more time you spend doing this, the more eye pokes you have because they’re incidental? They’re just part of the sport? It’s not. It’s not a f*cking accident! It’s not a f*cking accident. You can control it. All you have to f*cking do is penalize the motherf*cker that’s doing it.”
Ouch. ‘All that training for that’: Tom Aspinall’s backstage reaction to UFC 321 eye poke incident.
Rematch. Dana White reacts to ‘sh*tty ending’ of Tom Aspinall vs. Ciryl Gane at UFC 321, plans for rematch.
Fiasco. Ciryl Gane reacts to eye poke fiasco against Tom Aspinall at UFC 321: ‘This is the sport.’
Troll. Jon Jones trolls Tom Aspinall after UFC 321 flop, sends message to Alex Pereira.
Rude. UFC veterans question if Tom Aspinall could have continued at UFC 321: ‘You’ve got to fight with one eye at times.’
115. Mackenzie Dern wanted a finish at UFC 321, ‘so no one could say anything’ about her title win.
Mistake. Umar Nurmagomedov says Khabib warned him about ‘big mistake’ made in UFC 321 fight.
UFC 321 Post-Fight Press Conference.
Daniel Cormier’s immediate reaction to UFC 321.
Israel Adesanya reacts to UFC 321.
Michael Bisping reacts to UFC 321.
Mighty Mouse reacts to UFC 321.
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Kron Gracie (5-3) vs. Tom Picciano (7-3); Victory Fighting League, Dec. 12.
Jim Miller nails it. No notes (well, other than the veiled corruption allegation, which I do not agree with).
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