In Brief
- Tom Aspinall reveals he underwent three eye surgeries after accidental eye pokes suffered against Ciryl Gane at UFC 321.
- The heavyweight champion says the recovery was more painful than a vasectomy he had also gone through.
- A rematch against Gane, the interim champion, is expected later in the year.
Tom Aspinall went into detail about the physical aftermath of his controversial fight against Ciryl Gane at UFC 321, which ended in a no-contest after several accidental eye pokes to the heavyweight champion. A guest on the “Great Company with Jamie Lang” podcast, the Briton gave raw details about the three surgeries he had to undergo.
“Worse Than a Vasectomy”
“I had three eye surgeries,” Aspinall said. “One on the left eye and two on the right. By the way, I had the vasectomy too, and I thought that had to be the worst surgery possible. Man, compared to an eye surgery, that’s nothing. Honestly.” The champion added that he had to stay awake during the procedures: “It’s horrible. They keep you awake. They put a thing in to keep your eye open (…) they numb your eye (…) and they come at you with a scalpel, and you literally watch them open up your eyeball. It was horrible.”
Aspinall also admitted he feared, early on, permanent damage: “At first I was really scared, to be honest. Especially the first two weeks. Yeah, I was really worried about it.” That period of uncertainty, between the surgeries and the first weeks of recovery, clearly marked the champion as much as the fight itself, which was remembered more for its premature ending than for its sporting content.
A No-Contest That Sparked Debate
The fight’s outcome, ruled a no-contest after the referee judged Aspinall unable to continue following Gane’s repeated eye pokes, had already drawn criticism from part of the audience, who felt the stoppage denied the card a clear winner after a start that had actually favored the Frenchman. This controversy over officiating echoes, in a separate matter, the criticism Alex Pereira had directed at referee Herb Dean after his own fight against Gane, a case the California athletic commission had to publicly address.
A Response to Fan Criticism
The British champion used the appearance to respond to the criticism he received after the anticlimactic ending of the fight, with some fans accusing him of trying to cut the fight short after a strong start from Gane. “If you’re the type of person commenting from behind your phone about how tough a professional MMA fighter is, you clearly don’t know what you’re talking about,” he responded, visibly annoyed at having his toughness questioned while defending his heavyweight belt.
As the undisputed heavyweight champion, Aspinall finds himself in a peculiar position: denied a clean win in his last fight, yet still holding the belt, while Gane carries the interim title created in the wake of that unusual result. Only a rematch can settle the matter, in a division waiting to find out which of the two men will emerge as the undisputed champion.
Aspinall also said he feels ready to return to competition, with a rematch against interim champion Ciryl Gane expected later in the year. That future fight would settle, inside the octagon, the question left hanging since the contentious outcome of their first bout, and would reunify the heavyweight title under a single champion.
Until then, Aspinall says he wants to use this time to complete his recovery properly, without rushing a premature return that could jeopardize the rest of his reign. The British champion, who has not had a clean win in the sport’s marquee division for some time, knows that fan anticipation for this rematch keeps growing as the months pass without an official date.
Coming up: the official rankings after this event, and the card for the next show on UFC Tonight.
