“Pretty much lost his eye” – Former UFC Champs Break Down Eye Injury Risk in MMA Following UFC 321 Controversy
Everybody’s got an opinion on Tom Aspinall’s controversial no-contest against Ciryl Gane at UFC 321.
After sitting on the sidelines for 15 months, Aspinall’s first undisputed heavyweight title defense came to an anti-climactic end in the opening round. With 30 seconds left in the stanza, Gane unintentionally poked both of the Brit’s eyes, bringing an immediate halt to the highly anticipated clash.
Since then, every MMA fan and pundit on the planet has offered their take on the finish. Unsurprisingly, many condemned Aspinall’s decision to bow out of the bout. However, there are a few who agreed with the 32-year-old’s decision.
That includes both Kamaru Usman and Henry Cejudo, who seemingly sided with Aspinall during a recent episode of their Pound 4 Pound podcast.
“Forget about your neck, your shoulder, your blah blah blah,” Usman said. “You lose an eye, bro, and that’s it. “
“And that I think to me now, as I have my last fight, that’s the biggest thing that I could say for any of these young cats—careful with your eyes, man,” Cejudo added. “There’s even a guy from our gym that pretty much lost his eye, dude, like recently in practice—getting the [expletive] toe stuck in there. It’s sad.”
Tom Aspinall’s dad offers update on UFC Heavyweight Champ’s vision
While it sounds like Aspinall did not suffer any permanent damage due to the dueling eye pokes, his father and chaoch, Andy Aspinall, offered a concerning update on YouTube.
“[Doctors] said it’s bad, it’s not good,” the elder Aspinall said. “But his eye is a little bit more closed than it was. His right eye, he still can’t see anything. He said it’s just grey, and they tested him on words and he just couldn’t see anything. His left eye, 50% — he went down about four letters and then he just couldn’t see the letters. So one’s really, really blurry and one’s still not working.
In all likelihood, the UFC will look to rebook the heavyweight title tilt for sometime in 2026.
