Order Now with Main Event on Kayo Sports.<\/a><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/poster-fallback.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Aspinall has since been dealing with significant vision issues, leaving his heavyweight title plans on indefinite hold.<\/p>\n
Earlier in the week, his medical team at Optegra in the UK posted about his operation. <\/p>\n
\u201cAfter his highly publicised eye poke injury, Optegra\u2019s expert team is proud to have supported MMA fighter and UFC Heavyweight Champion [Aspinall],\u201d the update read. <\/p>\n
\u201cOver recent months we\u2019ve been working closely with him on his recovery. Following his operation on both eyes we continue the journey to get Tom\u2019s vision back to fighting fitness.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aspinall later shared a close-up image of his eyes soundtracked by The Silence of the Lambs, captioning the post: \u201c1 day post-surgery\u201d.<\/p>\n
UFC champion Tom Aspinall shares photo post-surgerySource: FOX SPORTS<\/p>\n
Aspinall has won eight of his 10 UFC bouts, and the only two times he hasn\u2019t had his hand raised have come down to freak injuries. <\/p>\n
The first was a devastating knee injury just 15 seconds into his 2022 showdown with Curtis Blaydes. <\/p>\n
The second came after he rebounded with a 60-second knockout of Blaydes, only to suffer eye pokes against Gane.<\/p>\n
Aspinall, who has faced criticism over how he handled the incident, has since vowed revenge on \u201ccheater\u201d Gane.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen it happened initially, I didn\u2019t really think much of it,\u201d Aspinall said on his YouTube channel.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it was an accidental eye poke. When I watch the fight back, that\u2019s when I really got the gist of what\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe guy was trying to f**king poke my eyes out all the way through that round. Multiple exchanges, nearly every exchange I could have put him in danger, he had his fingers out, pointing towards my eyes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe guy was cheating from the first second. The way that he wanted to win that fight was to have me compromised by cheating.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aspinall also indicated that he wasn\u2019t happy with UFC boss Dana White\u2019s comments following the incident, in which White stated \u201cTom didn\u2019t want to continue in the fight.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t continue and I\u2019ll tell you why,\u201d Aspinall said.<\/p>\n
TOPSHOT – Britain\u00e2\u0080\u0099s Tom Aspinall reacts after being hit in the eye while fighting France\u00e2\u0080\u0099s Ciryl Gane during their UFC heavyweight title bout at UFC 321 at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi early on October 26, 2025. (Photo by Giuseppe CACACE \/ AFP)Source: AFP<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause I\u2019m not a f**king dummy. I\u2019m not going to go out there and fight one of the best strikers in the world when I can\u2019t see with one eye. I know, as an MMA fighter, things are going to happen in a fight that compromises you.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf it\u2019s a legal move, you have to fight through it. That\u2019s what we do as a fighter. But if it\u2019s illegal, why am I going to put my health at risk when I can\u2019t see at all?\u201d<\/p>\n
Aspinall received little sympathy from former champion Jon Jones.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen Tom gets hurt, he\u2019s like immediately incapacitated,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n
\u201cImmediately. It\u2019s like you poke my eye, there was no like [trying to blink it out].<\/p>\n
Rothwell v Arlovkski: BKFC Highlights | 02:50<\/p>\n
\u201cI would have been the silliest looking cat on national TV [blinking my eyes] trying [to continue].\u201d<\/p>\n
Jones has since stated that he\u2019d like to make a comeback against UFC light heavyweight champion Alex Pereira at UFC\u2019s planned White House event later this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall had surgery on both eyes this week to fix damage from a double…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":474554,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-474553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}