Anything you read in the media is simply noise. People are creating their own narratives. This is the truth: <\/p>\n
Ongoing complications with my eyes mean I cannot get medically cleared to fight right now.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve had multiple surgeries, accidents and infections, and done everything possible to get back to competing.<\/p>\n
I had previously agreed to a fight date and was back sparring, feeling great and ready to compete when an accident caused further damage to my right eye. This means more time away from the sport, and right now, the timing of my return is unclear.<\/p>\n
I know there have been questions about why I\u2019ve been quiet. I\u2019ve always followed the advice of the UFC and focused on my recovery while we\u2019ve tried to make this happen.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve now made the decision to vacate the heavyweight title. I\u2019ve asked the UFC to allow me to make this statement because I don\u2019t want to hold the heavyweight division up. I know what it\u2019s like to have your career put on hold and I want the other fighters to have the opportunity to compete for the title.<\/p>\n
The UFC and Hunter have been informed every step of the way and have seen the tests, procedures and medical information relating to my eyes. We have worked closely with different doctors and specialists to try and make my return happen, but unfortunately, it\u2019s simply not possible right now.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m absolutely gutted. I\u2019ve chased this dream since I was 10 years old.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not done.<\/p>\n
Stepping away from the title is not stepping away from the sport or the dream. I\u2019ll continue doing everything I can to get healthy, get cleared and get back to competing as soon as possible.<\/p>\n
What makes this particularly difficult is that many of the complications I\u2019m dealing with are a result of fouls that changed the course of my career. Fighters rely on officials to enforce the rules and protect us in those moments, and it\u2019s hard to still be dealing with the consequences today.<\/p>\n
Thank you to everyone who has supported me throughout this absolute nightmare.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll be back as soon as I\u2019m medically able to be.<\/p>\n
Tom<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anything you read in the media is simply noise. People are creating their own narratives. This is the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":891700,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,1347,785,85,787,1396],"class_list":["post-891699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc","tag-ufc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891699","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=891699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/891700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=891699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=891699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=891699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}