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Tom Aspinall eerily predicted 'something completely different' could happen in his fight with Ciryl Gane After he successfully defended his interim title back in July 2024 against Curtis Blaydes , Aspinall was forced to wait around for over a year after Jon Jones failed to publicly commit to fighting the Brit. Eventually, Jones retired from the sport and the Wigan scrapper was promoted to undisputed champion. As first test as the heavyweight king was against Ciryl Gane in the main event at UFC 321 on Saturday night. Both men started strong - eager to make a statement - but it was the challenger who enjoyed success on the backfoot before he accidentally eye-poked Aspinall. The Brit was given five minutes to recover, but the fight was eventually waved off as the 32-year-old seemingly could not see out of his right eye. Usually, fighters envision exactly how they plan on winning their upcoming contest, but never do they predict that it will end in a no contest. Discussing how he envisioned the fight just hours before he made the walk to the cage, Aspinall made an eerie prediction: "Oh constantly... about the last six weeks, but obviously especially today. Yeah, it is all there is to think about." He added: "You can't not be on fight day (visualisation). I mean, you will go in there and something completely different will happen to what you are expecting." After the fight was waved off, fans at the Etihad Arena made their feelings clear, reacting to the ending by booing. Needless to say, Aspinall was not chuffed at all by the reaction in Abu Dhabi . During a post-fight interview with UFC legend Daniel Cormier, Aspinall said: “Guys I just got f***ing poked knuckle deep in the eyeball. Why are you booing? 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." Gane was adamant that he did not mean to poke his foe in the eye after their fight was ruled a no contest. "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." UFC supremo Dana White confirmed that the pair will go head-to-head in an immediate rematch once Aspinall is healed. “It’s total pain in the ass but yes," he said. "They’re both in shape, other than whatever’s wrong with his eye. Both guys are not injured. [We will do it] as soon as possible. "It’s unfortunate that it ended the way that it did. And yes, I think that there probably will be a lot more interest after they saw [how Gane performed]. He had Tom bloodied up and Tom didn’t want to continue in the fight. The rematch is very interesting." 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.
