Tom Aspinall is going home with his heavyweight title but without a win on his record after an eye poke ended his fight with Ciryl Gane in the UFC 321 main event.
It was a very disappointing end to what started out as a tremendous challenge for Aspinall, who dealt with a bit of adversity for the first time in the octagon outside of suffering a serious knee injury in a fight with Curtis Blaydes back in 2022. Following a strong start from both competitors, Gane put up his hand to block an exchange and his fingers went directly into Aspinall’s eyes.
Aspinall received medical attention but he repeatedly stated that he couldn’t see and that forced referee Jason Herzog to call a stop to the fight at 4:35 in the opening round. Because Herzog deemed the eye poke accidental, the result was declared as a no-contest.
“Guys I just got f*cking poked knuckle deep in the eyeball. Why are you booing?” Aspinall shouted at the crowd in Abu Dhabi. “What am I supposed to do about it? I didn’t do the f*cking poke. I can’t see.”
With a wet rag covering his eye and anxious to go receive medical treatment, Aspinall was understandably upset, especially considering he had to wait 15 months to get back in the octagon only for the fight to end this way.
“This is bullshit,” Aspinall said. “The fight was just getting going. Complete bullshit. I’m pissed off. I can hardly open my eye. F*cking double poke, both eyeballs.”
As for Gane, he was equally disappointed after he started out strong and actually did some damage on Aspinall before the eye poke ended the fight.
“I feel sorry, I’m very sorry about that for the crowd, for the fans,” Gane said. “I’m sorry for Tom Aspinall. I’m sorry for myself. I’m really disappointed but this is the sport. I don’t know what’s going to happen for the future. We will see.”
Considering the heavyweight division was already on hold while waiting to see what Jon Jones decided to do for the future, this is possibly the worst outcome that could have happened as Aspinall sought to establish himself as a dominant champion in the division. Instead, he goes home struggling to regain vision in one eye after the no-contest on Saturday.
Prior to the eye poke Aspinall started the fight by taking the center of the octagon and showing off his immense hand speed but Gane was more than ready as he circled away to avoid any serious damage. Gane then established a lightning quick jab that was consistently popping Aspinall in the nose, which caused significant bleeding across his face.
As time ticked away in the round, Aspinall jumped in for an exchange and Gane put his hand out, which poked the champion directly in the eye. The fight was paused as Aspinall was being given time to recover from the nasty eye poke.
The ringside physician came into check on Aspinall but he repeatedly stated that he couldn’t see out of his eye and that was enough for Herzog to stop the fight.
Aspinall obviously retains his championship but now he’ll have to wait to see how much damage was done to his eye before even contemplating a return to action, which won’t happen until sometime in 2026. In all likelihood, he’ll run it back with Gane but the heavyweight division remains in limbo until then.
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