I’m not sure if it really was that bad a call. Johnson went down like he was knocked out, albeit accompanied with screaming. The ref couldn’t have had any idea that it was a poke in the eye at that point, as he fell on to his front. If he stayed standing, but still flailing about in pain and holding his eye, it would be a lot more clearer. But, when he is on the floor and Burns goes in for the kill, the ref really has no other choice but to either let Burns hit him or stop the fight. So I think he made the right call given the circumstance.

Obviously, looking at replays , we know what should have happened, i.e. a timeout (or really a DQ given the frequency of the eyepokes), but hindsight and instant replays are wonderful things that a referee doesn’t possess.

As an aside, I wonder how long it will be before MMA witnesses a debate over the merits of additional technical referee’s using video technology to ‘assist’ a normal referee. Some sports, namely Tennis, Cricket, Rugby, have embraced it to varying degrees – others, e.g, football (soccer) have yet to make any great strides in this department, although I daresay bureaucracy and politics have their hand in that as much as anything else.