UFC prospect Modestas Bukauskas has defended Tom Aspinall following the backlash he received after his UFC 321 injury.
Back at UFC 321, Tom Aspinall suffered a nasty double eye poke at the hands of Ciryl Gane. The Englishman was unable to continue in the contest and in the aftermath, it quickly became clear that he would have to undergo surgery on both eyes in order to try and fix the issue, and hopefully, return to the cage one day.
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For whatever reason, a lot of fighters, fans and pundits opted to go after Aspinall for what went down as opposed to Gane. Many suggested that Tom simply didn’t want to continue with the fight which, of course, Tom rejected, noting that he literally couldn’t see anything after his loss.
In a recent interview, Aspinall’s training partner Modestas Bukauskas weighed in on the situation.
Bukauskas defends Aspinall
“When you see that stuff online, I just felt so bad for Tom,” Bukauskas told MMA Fighting. “He’s been a consummate company man. He took a fight on what two weeks’ notice against [Sergei] Pavlovich. He’s been waiting on the sidelines for [Jon] Jones.
“He’s been doing everything for this company and he’s put on some amazing performances. He’s been finishing people within the first round. It’s like people are quick to forget all the things he’s done and because he got eye poked, it’s like have any of you been poked like that in the eye?
“I’ve been poked in the eye pretty bad as well and my vision was blurry for ages. I’m talking it was a whole year one time. I kept on getting poked constantly in the eye and especially with that one, like everyone was saying, it was pretty much knuckle deep in the eye.
“I feel like it’s very unfair of people to jump to hate on him because he couldn’t continue. What if that happened to you? I don’t think you’d be fighting either.”
Quotes via MMA Fighting