I think it is absolutely wonderful that this conversation is still happening in the combat-sports world because it really needs to. The recent Tom Aspinall vs. Ciryl Gane fight that ended in the first round because of an eye-poke sparked a conversation that hopefully will result in some sort of change to the sport, is great, but it is a situation that if we let off the pressure, the UFC is simply going to sweep it under the rug just like they do everything else.
The bottom line from UFC's perspective is always making money, and the more fights that they have to do twice because of an eye-poke or any other no-contest situation, works out for them so why should they care?
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I don't recall a ton of fights that have ended early because of eye-pokes / gouges, but I certainly recall quite a few fights that have been severely delayed because of them. Much of the time there is a lot of pressure on the fighters to continue because the person who gets poked appears to be a quitter looking for an advantage or disqualification win if they do opt to not continue. That was the initial reaction to Aspinall deciding that he couldn't continue and the boos rained down from the crowd in Abu Dhabi when the championship fight was ruled a "no contest." Part of the reason why is because it appeared at that point that Ciryl Gane was doing better in the fight and that Tom Aspinall was looking for an easy way out.
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Tom Aspinall claimed that he couldn't see, and 3 days later he still said that he was having vision issues and this was confirmed by a doctor. Is it real? Is it not? It doesn't really matter. What needs to be talked about is that an eye poke can severely affect your fight game because, well, it's pretty important to be able to see when someone is trying to punch you in the face.
The crowd always hates it when you end the contest because you can't continue and I know that I join in the fray of hating on the person that can't continue as well because we all waited so long for that moment and don't want to have it taken away from us. One of the most famous incidents of a main event being called off from an eye poke is when Yair Rodriguez poked Jeremy Stephens in the eye in a main event in Mexico City just 15 seconds into the main event, the boos started almost immediately and got louder and louder the longer that Stephens used up his allotted 5 minutes of time to see if he can recover.
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Stephens was incapable of opening his eye even after 5 minutes. The ring doctor confirmed this, but this would not placate the crowd and when Herb Dean called the fight off, there was a near riot in Mexico City. If there is one thing that I know about events that take place in Mexico, it is that the fans are very, let us say, "passionate" about their hometown heroes. So they viewed this as Stephens "cheating" and the chants turned into things being thrown and Stephens needing to be surrounded by security as he exited the ring as well as the building as a whole. They feared for his life.
The proof of the eye poke being played over and over on the big screen didn't matter... the fans were pissed and they wanted blood.
Another famous incident was when a guy decided to please the crowd and continue even though he was definitely affected by the eye poke. A poke that grew into a nasty and visible wound as the fight went on.
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Mitrione wanted to be a man of the people and carry on, plus he was unaware of "what his options were" at the time. He went on to lose that fight and not long after to exit the UFC altogether.
I don't think that there are many fighters out there that intentionally lead in with eye poke strategies other than Jon Jones, but the fact of the matter is that if they do eye-poke you, there are no real consequences for having done so. If you get poked and you don't continue, you are seen as a quitter, if you do continue you are now fighting at a disadvantage if you can't see.. There's no way to win with this.
Even if points are deducted for eye pokes this isn't going to really change the situation because especially if the poke happens early in the fight, the following 3-5 rounds are going to see one fighter competing at a huge disadvantage.
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People often point to the UFC gloves being a big part of the problem. The UFC gloves are on the right above, the gloves on the left are from PRIDE. UFC has eye pokes all the time, PRIDE has almost zero incidents of this happening. There really isn't any reason to lead in with extended fingers in MMA other than to potentially grapple while feigning a head strike, but the opportunity for this grapple to result in an inadvertent poke, is much greater given the UFC gloves.
This is one thing that is being talked about right now: Changing of the gloves to prevent this happening in the future. The 2nd thing that is being discussed is that after 1 eye poke in a fight a fighter is warned, has a point deducted (perhaps 2 if it is egregious) and if it happens a 2nd time, they are automatically disqualified, fined, and perhaps receive a ban for a certain period of time. It really doesn't matter if the eye poke is intentional or not... the tactic of leading in with extended fingers is something that has to stop.
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Jones was (and likely still is) notorious for leading in with eye poke extended fingers and he even admitted to doing it in an interview where he said "it's very illegal" as well as "it's working." To be totally fair he did say that he never does it intentionally, but does that really matter? Nobody intentionally kicks their opponent in the nuts but if it happened many times in a fight they would be disqualified and probably fired... but not eye pokes.
This is a conversation that needs to not just be swept under the rug like UFC tried to do with fighter pay, drug use, and anything else that has come their way that was controversial. This needs to be changed, if not for the fans than for the sake of the fighters.