Tom Aspinall and his team are still reeling from the damage done at UFC 321.
Last Saturday’s main event in Abu Dhabi ended in disaster for everyone involved, but especially for Aspinall, who was unable to continue after being poked in the eye by Cyril Gane. To make matters worse, this was Aspinall’s first title defense as undisputed heavyweight champion, so although he retained the belt, it drew a wide range of reactions from fighters and analysts, with some questioning his commitment and others supporting his decision.
Aspinall’s father and head coach, Andy, spoke about the incident on the fighter’s YouTube channel and provided an update on Aspinall’s condition in the days following the incident.
“(The eye specialist) said it was bad,” Andy said. “It’s not good, but his eyes are a little more closed than they used to be. His right eye still can’t see anything. It’s just gray. They tested his speech, but he couldn’t see anything. His left eye was about 50 percent gone, about four letters, and then he couldn’t see any letters. So one is really, really blurry and the other one isn’t working yet.”
When asked about Aspinall’s mental state, Andy admitted his son was in a bad mood in the aftermath of UFC 321. However, he insisted he was not too worried about the reaction from critics and social media, insisting that any frustration they felt was solely due to the way the contest was unfolding and the uncertainty he now had to deal with.
“For me, it’s all about his health,” Andy said. “It’s not a fight. That’s what he chose to do as a job, and injury is one of the possible outcomes. But losing your vision, especially from a foul, is a bad outcome. And I’m not attacking Cyril Gane in any way. This happens a lot in MMA. If you commit a foul by poking yourself in the eye, the referee just says, ‘Stop.’
“No one has ever lost a fight because of a poke in the eye, and I’m not saying anyone should win or lose, but the safety of the property comes first and I’m tired of saying what I would do if it was someone else’s son. If my son was in a fight, you’d want him to be as safe as possible, but being poked in the eye would have been the worst, and he could have gone blind. I don’t know because he still hasn’t regained his vision in one eye. We’re still waiting, time will heal. “Hopefully.”
While Andy doesn’t even feel resentment toward Gane, who may have been the direct cause of this fight ending in a no-contest, he’s probably incredibly disappointed that his third shot at becoming the undisputed UFC heavyweight champion once again came up empty-handed.
For Aspinall’s team, unless changes are made at a structural level, games are always at risk of being ruined by fouls, accidental or not.
“From our side, it was scary because the main man that we all work with and spend time with every day became invisible and we could see his mood,” Andy said. “I’m very upset, I’m very sad. And I think it’s the same with Cyril, but he committed a foul. Fouls have consequences, or should have consequences, but he doesn’t have consequences. I’m not saying he should have consequences.”
“The UFC has some rules. What would it take to change those rules? Would it take someone getting poked in the eye and falling to the floor? I don’t think so, absolutely not, but what would it take? Money? That people would stop watching the fights because the gloves weren’t as good and the fights weren’t as fun. I don’t know the answer. The old PRIDE gloves were different. But something, from my point of view, that’s what we need to do in the sport to stop things. What happened at Tom’s fight on Saturday night?