The undisputed heavyweight champion’s team were left seething after Gane poked his rival in both eyes – forcing their UFC showdown to be waved off
Tom Aspinall’s team believes Ciryl Gane should have been disqualified following the Frenchman’s eye-poke in their heavyweight dust-up on Saturday night.
The pair clashed at UFC 321 in Abu Dhabi, but the fight was waved off deep into the first round after Gane had poked Aspinall in both eyes. The challenger started strong, landing several jabs and even drew blood from the Brit’s nose before the unfortunate incident.
Aspinall was given five minutes to recover, but after telling the cage side doctor and referee he could not see, the clash was stopped and deemed a no contest. Slow motion replays should exactly how bad the poke was, and the undisputed champion was quickly rushed to hospital for further examination.
In a video uploaded to his official YouTube channel, the 32-year-old showed fans exactly what he went through in the hospital post-fight. The heavyweight scrapper was then shown a replay of the poke and a member of Aspinall’s team asked: “How is he not disqualified off that?” to which the British fighter replied: “That is outrageous. He already got warned twice.
“At least once for poking. Keep his fingers closed the ref said. He nearly poked me in the eye before. People start booing me like it’s my fault. F****** double poked me in the eye. Trained for 14 months. Didn’t want someone’s finger knuckle deep in my eye.” The camera then panned over to Aspinall’s dad and coach Andy. “What is it going to take for someone to change something? It’s not a hard job surely? Something needs doing about it,” he said.
Aspinall will have further tests in the UK, and will be hoping to get back in the cage as soon as possible. When asked if he was glad the fight was stopped, the doctor replied: “Yeah of course, you should stop the fight until you are good again and cleared from our side.” He added: “We didn’t find anything dangerous.”
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The British fighter added: “It was way scarier than what I did to my knee. Because with my knee, I knew it was going to be alright. I still don’t know how this is going to be. We’re just waiting for further results. We’ve got to do more tests in the UK. Flying back today [Sunday], and we’ll go from there. I’m not sure when I’ll be ready to let everyone know what’s going on. Thank you for all the support. See you soon.”
Aspinall Sr offered his own verdict, stating: “It’s a horrendous thing to think as a parent. I know what it’s like these days with people saying what they want. But when it’s your son, and they could lose an eye, and their health, and they’ve got children to look after. Something needs doing about it. It’s horrendous to look at [the eye poke incident].”
When is the next UFC fight?
Steve Garcia will take on David Onama in Las Vegas on Saturday, November 1. The prelims are expected to get underway at around 8pm UK time (3pm ET / 12pm PT / 2pm CT), while the main card will start at 11pm UK time Sunday (6pm ET / 3pm PT / 5pm CT).
In the main event, Onama will likely make the walk to the cage first at around 2am UK time Sunday (9pm ET / 6pm PT / 8pm CT). Fans in the United Kingdom will be able to watch all the action live on TNT Sports.