Tom Aspinall was poked in both eyes by Ciryl Gane which saw their heavyweight title fight at UFC 321 stopped in the first round before the Brit was taken to hospital
Ciryl Gane has insisted he did not mean to poke Tom Aspinall in the eye after their fight was ruled a no contest.
Aspinall was defending his undisputed heavyweight title for the first time at UFC 321 while Gane was challenging for the crown for the first time. And after a fast start, Gane poked the champion in both eyes with his fingers, leaving the referee to bring the contest to a halt.
Aspinall was taken to hospital while UFC CEO Dana White insisted a rematch will be ordered, while Gane was left to defend himself. “I didn’t do it on purpose,” he said. “I know what it is to have an eye poke because when I fought Derrick Lewis, I got an eye poke, and I was fighting two Derrick Lewis’s for a full round. So, I know how it is.
“I think I started very well, because everybody knows the strategy. Every time he started really hard and surprised his opponent. I think I did very well. We defended the takedown. I touched him. We saw some blood on his nose. It was a really great first round. That’s why maybe I was a little bit disappointed, a little bit sad about this issue, but this is a sport.
“I knew he loves to start really fast, so I was touching him. I was defending the takedown. In the middle of the first round, I was feeling myself in a certain flow. I started to understand really well what was happening. I thought I would end this fight… I was ready for absolutely everything, for the wrestling, for the grappling, for the striking. I was working on also a lot of good things that I used to show, and I used to like. The creativity in the striking is my thing. It’s absolutely something I wanted to show off today.”
Before leaving the cage, Aspinall took aim at the fans who were booing. “Guys I just got f***ing poked knuckle deep in the eyeball, why are you booing?” he said. “What am I supposed to do about it? I didn’t do the f***ing poke. I can’t see. This is bulls***. The fight was just getting going. Complete bulls***. I’m p***** off.”
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White, meanwhile, appeared to insinuate Aspinall was looking for a way out. “I feel the way everybody feels. Great showing, s****y ending,” he said. “I think that after the [Jon] Jones fight, a lot of people wrote Ciryl Gane off. He looked damn good tonight. It looked like we were in for a few rounds, and it was going to be a good fight.
“I can’t make people fight. If I want to put together a fight, I can’t make people fight. You definitely can’t make somebody continue if they feel they’ve been injured. Only Tom knows what happened. Could he see? Couldn’t he see? Could he continue? Only he knows that.”