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Tom Aspinall and his team are still reeling from the damage done at UFC 321. This past Saturday’s main event in Abu Dhabi ended in disaster for all parties involved, but especially for Aspinall, who was unable to continue fighting after being poked in the eyes by Ciryl Gane. Making matters worse, this was Aspinall’s first title defense as undisputed heavyweight champion, so though he retained his belt, it was in a manner that drew a wide range of responses from fighters and analysts, with some questioning his resolve, and others supporting his decision. Aspinall’s father and head coach Andy spoke on the fighter’s YouTube channel about the incident and provided an update on Aspinall’s condition a few days removed from the incident. “[Eye specialist] said it’s bad,” Andy said. “It’s not good, but his eye is a little bit more closed than it was. His right eye he still can’t see anything. It’s just gray. They’ve tested him on words and he just couldn’t see anything. His left eye, 50 percent, he went down about four letters and then just couldn’t see the letters. So one’s really, really blurry and one’s still not working.” Asked how Aspinall is doing mentally, Andy admitted his son has been in a poor mood in the aftermath of UFC 321. However, he insists they haven’t worried too much about reactions from pundits or social media and that any frustration they’re feeling is strictly from how the contest played out and the uncertainty they now have to deal with. “For me, everything’s about his health,” Andy said. “It’s not about fighting, that’s just what he chose to do as a job and one of the consequences you can get hurt. But it’s a bad consequence if you lose your sight, especially by a foul. And I’m not getting at Ciryl Gane in any way, this happens a lot in MMA. If you commit a foul with an eye poke, the referee just says, ‘Don’t do it.’ “Nobody’s ever lost a fight because of an eye poke and I’m not saying somebody should win or lose, but the safety of the thing is paramount and I’m fed up with saying if it was somebody else’s son, they would say what I say. If your son’s fighting, you want him to be as safe as you can and he got poked in the eye and it’s bad and he could have lost his sight. Still not got his sight in one eye, so we don’t know, we’re still waiting. Time is a healer, hopefully.” Andy doesn’t even take umbrage with Gane, who may have been directly responsible for the bout ending in a no-contest, but is also presumably incredibly disappointed that his third attempt to become undisputed UFC heavyweight champion ended with him empty-handed once again. For Aspinall’s team, until changes are made at a structural level, fights are always at risk of being spoiled by a foul, accidental or otherwise. “From our side, it was horrendous because our main guy who we all work with and around and are with every day couldn’t see and you saw the mood he was in,” Andy said. “So upset and so grieved, and Ciryl I’m sure the same, but he fouled. There’s a consequence or should be a consequence to fouling and he’s not got a consequence. I’m not saying he should have. “The UFC have got some rules. What will it take to change those rules? Will it take somebody’s eye being poked and falling on the floor? I don’t think that’s a thing, I’m sure it’s not, but what does it take? Is it the money? That people won’t watch the fights because they’re not as exciting because the gloves are not as good. I don’t know the answer. The old PRIDE gloves were different. But something, from my point of view, needs to be done in the sport to stop happening what happened on Saturday night in Tom’s fight.”
