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Tom Aspinall’s return to the octagon in Abu Dhabi didn’t go as planned on Saturday night, as his bout with Ciryl Gane quickly ended after an accidental poke in the eye.
In fact, Gane hit both of Aspinall’s eyes late in the first round, ultimately leading to the no-contest in the main event of the night.
But Aspinall saying he couldn’t continue the fight led to boos from the crowd and widespread debate from fans and experts alike, including former UFC fighter and current ESPN analyst Chael Sonnen.
“Being poked in the eye is illegal, but to fight with one eye is very common,” Sonnen said on ESPN’s 321 post-match show. “The opponent is trying to hit your eye, he’s trying to bust you up and make your nose bleed. So that part of it, it does have a question mark for guys like Anthony [Smith] and I. We are trying to be polite. We are trying to show grace, but in all fairness, you’re the heavyweight champion of the world. You’ve got to fight with one eye at times.”
Video replay showed that Gane clearly landed both of his fingers in Aspinall’s eyes, though the heavyweight champion was holding an ice pack on his right eye after the match. He was heated during his post-match interview with Daniel Cormier.
“Guys, I just got f—— poked knuckle-deep in the eyeball. What the f—, why you booing? What am I supposed to do about it, I didn’t do the poke. I can’t see! This is bull—-. The fight was just getting going. Complete bull—-.”
Aspinall added that he could “hardly open my eye.”
While there were some who wanted to see Aspinall continue to fight, fellow MMA fighter Sean O’Malley defended him because of how dangerous Gane is.
“You’re the UFC heavyweight champion of the world, you just got poked in the eye very bad, and you’re fighting a very dangerous kickboxer. Very dangerous kickboxer. It is hard to stand in front of a human being with that high level of skills and fight him with two eyes. Now, you’re illegally poked in the eye – it wasn’t a right hand that broke his orbital [bone], eye swells up and he can’t see. That’s different.… Tom Aspinall would fight through that.”
At the time of the incident, Gane appeared to be giving Aspinall all he could handle, as Aspinall’s nose was bloodied before the double-poke. And being this was a title fight, the crowd and everyone involved at UFC would’ve loved to see a proper finish.
Aspinall, the 32-year-old from England, hadn’t been in the octagon since July 2024 when he dropped Curtis Blaydes one minute into the first round. Aspinall got redemption for losing just 15 seconds into his previous bout with Blaydes in July 2022 after suffering a knee injury on a kick.
Aspinall is 15-3 in his UFC career with 11 knockouts, and he has never gone to the third round in any of his bouts.
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