UFC 321 left a lot of fans disappointed, and Paddy Pimblett is going as far as to call the card one of the worst major shows the promotion has ever put on.
On paper, this past Saturday’s pay-per-view event looked fine. Tom Aspinall was scheduled for his first defense as undisputed heavyweight champion against Ciryl Gane. Virna Jandiroba and Mackenzie Dern would fight to pick up the crown left behind by Zhang Weili. And Alexander Volkov, Jailton Almeida, Umar Nurmagomedov, and Mario Bautista were in featured bouts with legitimate contender stakes.
However, everything fell apart at the end of the evening when Aspinall vs. Gane ended in a no-contest when Aspinall was unable to continue after being poked in the eyes. The crowd at Etihad Arena showered the cage with boos and social media was unkind to Aspinall and Gane after their fight inconclusively in under five minutes.
Pimblett posted his reaction to the finish and the card itself and his review was unkind.
“If this does end like this, this will be one of the worst pay-per-views in UFC’s history,” Pimblett said on his YouTube channel. “One of the biggest disappointments ever when it comes to a card.”
Objectively, Pimblett is spot on, as this was just the first UFC championship main event ever to end in a no-contest. A highly anticipated light heavyweight championship grudge match between Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier at UFC 214 is also in the books as a no-contest, but that was initially a knockout win for Jones before it was oveturned due to Jones later failing a drug test.
It was a disappointing capper to an up-and-down card, which also saw Volkov defeat Almeida in a snoozer and Nurmagomedov score a hard-fought but likely fell short of becoming the clear-cut No. 1 contender at 135 pounds.
“The prelims to start it off weren’t bad,” Pimblett said. “The big heavyweight [Valter Walker] getting another heel hook, the Aussie kid [Quillan Salkilld] knocking Nasrat [Haqparast] out. Even the start of the pay-per-view, the first fight, that 15-0 undefeated dude [Azamat Murzakanov] knocked [Aleksandar] Rakic out. Thinking this is shaping up to be a great card and then Almeida just tries to hold Volkov down like it’s a grappling match. Volkov gets the win, that was a boring fight. Then Umar-Bautista had about 20 exciting seconds in 15 minutes, that was another boring fight, Umar wins a decision.
“Co-main event wasn’t too bad, Mackenzie Dern and Jandiroba, but everyone was just looking forward to the main event, Aspinall-Gane. It was shaping up to be a great fight and then 15 seconds left in the round, gets poked in the eye and he can’t see, so I don’t know really what Tom’s meant to do there. If he can’t see, he can’t be fighting, can he?”
One thing Pimblett won’t do is join the chorus of critics blaming Aspinall for not fighting through the foul. In Pimblett’s eyes, it was Gane who was primarily responsible for UFC 321 ending the way it did.
“‘Anticlimactic as it gets,’ Jon Anik, you are not wrong,” Pimblett said. “I think they’ve got to run it back. You can’t not do that fight again. It was shaping up to be a good fight, the best test Tom’s had so far in the UFC.
“Feel bad for Tom. Feel bad for Ciryl Gane, even though it was his fault, it was unintentional, but still, it’s his fault that the fight’s not f*cking continuing. Need to do something with the gloves so you can’t do that with your fingers.”
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