The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has been considered as the largest mixed martial arts promotion company in the world. It has been in the industry since 1993 and has surpassed many challenges for the past 21 years.
The organization has been keeping up in improving itself as the years go by. Now, the latest issues that the UFC is addressing are eye pokes and slippery Octagon surfaces.
According to UFC president Dana White, they are hearing and addressing some of the issues that fighters have raised. They are looking into options that will improve the slippery canvas inside the UFC cage. White said "We've been working on it forever."
A lot of the fighters were complaining about the sandy texture of the octagon floor. According to Dana White the texture is due to a substance meant to make the floor sticky but the fighters a reloosing their footing because of this.
Although White did not provide the name of this substance but he assured that they are looking in to ways to improve the floor. He said that they are currently researching the market for a more suitable replacement. He said "We're actually looking at a couple of different options right now for that, too. Trying some new things."
Though White was open to answering questions about cage improvement, he was adamant to address the issue of eye poking during fights. He said that the call for eye poking should go to the referee. He said "Eye pokes are the (referee's responsibility). The ref needs to make people start shutting their hands. You start giving guys warnings, and then you start taking points, I guarantee you there are going to be a lot less eye pokes. We've been doing this for over 14 years. We went years without eye pokes. And then all of a sudden, everybody started poking each other in the eyes. The refs gotta take care of that, tell them to close their hands. And if they don't, you warn them and then you take a point."
The UFC organization is not without their fair share of controversy. What's important is that the organization is willing to look in to the matter and improve themselves.
