One MMA icon has come to the defense of Tom Aspinall following UFC 321.
The heavyweight title fight between Aspinall and Ciryl Gane this past weekend had the makings of an intriguing affair. Gane found success by busting up Aspinall’s nose. The fight ended prematurely, however. Gane landed a accidental double poke and the champion was unable to continue. The bout was ruled a no contest.
During the UFC 321 post-fight show on TNT Sports, Michael Bisping defended Aspinall from the detractors who wanted to see the fight continue (via MMAJunkie).
“There’s people online saying, ‘When you’re saying multiple times you can’t see, if you want to continue you shouldn’t be saying that.’ Reality is, if he can’t see, tell the truth,” Bisping said. “If you can’t see, you’re allowed to say you can’t see. People might point to me and say, ‘Well you fought with one eye.’ Yeah, it was a secret because I shouldn’t have been fighting. Tom is the champion of the world and he doesn’t want to go out there when his vision is impaired or massively affected and potentially lose a fight that was shaping up to be a difficult fight.
“Ciryl Gane was on point. You saw the damage on Tom’s face. This was not an easy fight by any stretch of the imagination. He didn’t want to continue with his vision damaged or not being able to see. I don’t blame him. The crowd were upset – I get that. They were frustrated.”
UFC CEO Dana White told media members that booking Aspinall vs. Gane again will be a “pain in the [expletive].” Still, the UFC boss plans to have Aspinall and Gane facing each other again as soon as possible. A big factor will be how quickly Aspinall’s eye will heal.
The good news for Aspinall is that he has avoided long-term damage.