UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall is getting two surgeries done on his eyes to fix the damage caused by Ciryl Gane back in October at UFC 321.<\/p>\n
Aspinall was set to defend the undisputed heavyweight title for the first time after winning the interim title in 2023 and defending it in 2024. After wasting half of 2025<\/a> waiting for Jon Jones, Tom was finally upgraded to full champ in June, and booked to fight four months later against Gane. That bout lasted all of four and a half minutes before Gane stuck his hand<\/a> in Aspinall\u2019s face, badly poking both eyes.<\/p>\n The fight was ruled a \u2018No Contest\u2019 after Aspinall couldn\u2019t continue, but at least doctors in Abu Dhabi said there was no serious damage! Alas, another set of different, better doctors in the UK took a closer look<\/a> and found significant bilateral ocular trauma causing Brown\u2019s syndrome, which makes it difficult to fully move the eye.<\/p>\n The damage is so serious that it will take two surgeries to fix the issues. Tacked onto the tail end of a footwork tutorial on his YouTube channel,<\/a> Aspinall \u2014 sporting some ugly ass glasses – confirmed the plan was to fight Gane again in 2026 after those surgeries to fix his eyes.<\/p>\n \u201cBy by the time this is going out, I\u2019ll probably have had one surgery on one side already,\u201d Aspinall revealed. \u201cNext surgery is coming mid-January. So we\u2019re working towards getting back, and that\u2019s the plan.\u201d<\/p>\n