Copyright Yardbarker
Two former UFC stars have waded into the ongoing row about the recent UFC heavyweight clash between Tom Aspinall and Ciryl Gane. The fight was ruled a ‘no contest’ after Gane poked the British star in both eyes while attempting a punch in the first round of their headline contest in Abu Dhabi. Aspinall was unable to continue after telling referee Jason Herzog that he could not see. He is scheduled to undergo further tests to discover the full extent of the damage. The Mancunian was the bookmakers’ favourite to retain the title heading into the bout, but Gane was causing him problems before the fight was called off. The interest of bettors was so great that platforms offering promotional bonuses, such as the Underdog promo code, had millions of visits. The controversial ending to the UFC 321 pay-per-view has inevitably sparked plenty of debate, with opinion split about whether Aspinall should have continued. However, former mixed martial arts star Jim Miller believes the UFC has questions to answer after failing to get to grips with the issue of eye poking. He claims that the lack of punishment for fouls led to the ‘no contest’ decision at UFC 321 and urged the promotion’s bosses to take appropriate action. “Eye gouging, eye poking, is a foul,” Miller said. “And if that foul is done with intention, then the fighter that commits the foul gets disqualified if the fight can’t continue. “In most cases, there’s some silly stuff in there as well. But it is up to the referee, and probably the commission on the side of the octagon, to decide whether it was intentional or not. And it never seems to be intentional. “I’ve had my vision permanently affected by eye pokes. It doesn’t affect my ability to fight or see anything close, really. It’s more quality of life stuff – it’s much harder to see a target with my bow nowadays. “The only way we’re going to stop this thing is if the fighters that are committing the foul actually end up getting punished for the foul. That’s the only way this is going to stop. It’s not a glove issue – it is an issue of culture and the fighters.” UFC president Dana White spoke about the possibility of organising rematch in the aftermath of the fight, which seems likely to happen once Aspinall has recovered. White appeared to suggest that Aspinall had ‘quit’ during his post-fight comments – a position that numerous pundits and fans supported. He claimed that Aspinall had been ‘bloodied up’ and ‘didn’t want to continue’ but confirmed that a rematch is ‘what makes sense’. White insisted that a second fight would be ‘very interesting’. However, former UFC Chael Sonnen believes Aspinall has every reason to feel aggrieved and thinks he should hand out his own justice to the Frenchman. “Wouldn’t it be interesting if Tom came out and said ’no, I’m not going rematch him’ – he’s a cheater,” Sonnen said. “Why would I rematch a guy that violated not one of my eyes, but both? I gave him his chance. He chose to cheat and I’m going to move on.’ “For some reason, Ciryl has come out of this thing with his hands clean. He’s the one that did the poking.”
