Henry Cejudo confronts UFC Seattle referee over eye poke, who admits to big mistake

UFC Seattle referee admits big mistake in not deducting points as Henry Cejudo complains about eye pokes in event headliner.

Henry Cejudo confronts UFC Seattle referee over eye poke, who admits to big mistake

Henry Cejudo confronts Jason Herzog over fight-ending UFC Seattle eye poke (Source: X)

The drama from UFC Seattle keeps on unfolding. Henry Cejudo had big dreams of rebounding at UFC Fight Night: Cejudo vs Song. However, the former double-champ lost a highly controversial technical decision to Song Yadong. This time, Cejudo takes charge to the man partly responsible for it.

“Triple C” was subject to a double-eye-poke in Round Three of their main event. However, the poke wasn’t intentional and Yadong didn’t get a points deduction. Hoping that he would, Henry Cejudo opted out thinking he might just trail ahead. However, Cejudo was behind on all three judges’ cards. Now, there is footage of Henry Cejudo confronting Jason Herzog for not reprimanding ‘Kung Fu Kid.’

One, you didn’t take a point, and then two, when I took the five-minute break and we ended up coming back to actually fight, like I still wasn’t recovered, but that dude still came here [with outstretched fingers] and you didn’t do anything…Luckily, I couldn’t see – or at least I saw four arms – but you never warned him…I have a loss on my record, Jason, because you didn’t make the right call and that bugs me a little bit.

Henry Cejudo to Jason Herzog on his YT Channel
YouTube video

Eye pokes remain a blemish in combat culture. UFC has even undone the Official Fight Glove redesign – called the “3Eight” and “5Eight” as it didn’t prevent much. An understandably emotional Triple C and his anger stemmed from the fact that Herzog had gone through such scenarios with him in the dressing room. Those that were not policed similarly during the UFC Seattle main event.

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To Cejudo’s point, Yadong continued on with outstretched fingers, risking the chance of injury even more. Cejudo later told Pound 4 Pound podcast co-host Kamaru Usman that his ocular filter was dented and still impaired due to diplopia.

UFC Seattle referee Jason Herzog admits he should’ve taken a point

The UFC Seattle fight night debacle is a multi-fold one. There’s blame on Henry Cejudo that he tried to game out the scores and win based on a deduction. It is not proper sportsmanship, but not illegal as well. There is the thought that Chinese standout Yadong was the one to poke and should not have won. On the ‘Weighing In show #550’, “Big” John McCarthy even weighed in on what went wrong.

Henry Cejudo gets admission things could have been different at UFC Seattle headliner
Henry Cejudo gets admission things could have been different at UFC Seattle headliner (Source: X)

Veteran fighter Jim Miller and others have also voiced their concerns about the risk of injury in the matter. Cejudo’s three-fight losing streak is the longest of his pro career. He hasn’t earned a win since May 2020. Four of his five career losses have come by decision, but this was quite a sting. It is one that he balmes Herzog for. On introspection, Herzog stated that things could’ve been different.

I can’t say that you’re wrong and when I watched it again, I’m like ‘Yeah, I should have probably stopped it and taken a point…

Jason Herzog replied

Herzog admitted that he should have taken one point away from Song Yadong, although fans have yet to hear the full conversation. Despite a win in his column, Yadong is ready to run things back. Here’s hoping the next ordeal, if at all, runs better.

Related: 3 reasons why Henry Cejudo retiring at UFC 249 was bad idea