Justin Gaethje has been one of the loudest voices calling for the UFC to do something about eye pokes. And why not? ‘The Human Highlight’ after all has been on the receiving end of eye pokes on numerous high-stakes fights. Fans will remember the furor online after his most recent UFC 300 clash against Max Holloway, in which he was eye-poked at least twice.

Another egregious example of him being eye-poked came in his UFC 268 clash against Michael Chandler back in 2021, which made Gaethje and the fans equally angry. In the second round of their three-round clash, Gaethje gets hit in the eye by Chandler who pawed at ‘Human Highlight’ with his left hand.

Immediately, Gaethje disengaged and put his hand on his right eye. But the referee refused to jump in. It was only after Chandler followed up with a strike on a clearly in-pain and smarting ‘Human Highlight’ that referee Mike Beltran stepped in and paused the action.

However, what the ref did next was even more egregious and has been criticized by Gaethje and the fans alike. The UFC has released the no-commentary version of the moment on its YouTube channel which shows the referee asking Gaethje if he was okay. The former BMF champ first said no, but the referee didn’t stop the action and give him a break as the rules demand, instead asking Gaethje if he was okay once again.

Being the warrior he is, ‘Human Highlight’ acquiesced the second time, and the fight was resumed. Thankfully, Gaethje emerged victorious in the end, but he did call out the referee in a subsequent interview with Jon Anik. However, even more critical of the referee were the fans, who took to the comments section to let their thoughts known.

Fans call out referee for failing to give Justin Gaehtje recovery time after eye poke

One fan was glad to see Gaethje win the bout. Nonetheless, he was incensed that the former BMF champion was given no recovery time as the rules dictate, despite the lightweight clearly having communicated to the ref that he was eye-poked: “No recover time nothing, this actually aggravated me for Justin. Luckily he still won

Another seconded this sentiment and chewed out Beltran for not giving ‘Human Highlight’ a break to get his bearings and just pestering the fighter until he agreed he could continue: “Ref is horrible. If the fighter says he got eyepoked when you asked him after watching him get eyepoked, you give him recovery time. You don’t keep asking until you get the answer you want.”

The Beltran-bashing only continued in the comments section as one fan pointed out that the ref had a history of bad calls, and quipped he was related to Steve Mazzagatti, whom many consider one of the worst referees in the sport: “That ref sucks, this isn’t the first time he’s missed something during a fight. He’s a cousin to mazzagatti!”

One fan just felt bad for Gaethje and him getting eye-poked again and again in fights: “I swear Gaethje is the most eye-poked fighter in UFC history.” Another had a more charitable explanation for Beltran not giving Gaethje recovery time, and felt that the referee wanted to keep the action going because of how exciting the fight had been: “Lol this fight was so exciting that Mike Beltran didn’t wanted it to stop for any reason and basically forced Gaethje to continue despite being poked”

Jon Jones caught strays from the fans for his alleged proclivity for eye-poking opponents as one fan quipped that Chandler learned to eye-poke under ‘Bones’: “When Jon Jones is your training coach.” 

What are your thoughts on the referee’s conduct during the eye-poke affair? Do you think the fight at UFC 300 would have had a different outcome if Gaethje was not poked in the eye? Let us know in the comments.