Things are still murky for UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall.
According to his father and coach, Aspinall continues to have issues with his sight after an illegal eye poke from Ciryl Gane that ended his championship fight at UFC 321 on Saturday in a no contest. Andy Aspinall, Tom’s father, provided an update Tuesday on Tom’s YouTube channel, where he revealed that his son has yet to recover his full sight.
“… It’s bad – it’s not good,” Andy said. “His eye is a little bit more closed than it was. His right eye, he can’t see anything – it’s just gray. (A second eye doctor) tested him on words and he just couldn’t see anything. His left eye is 50 percent. It went about four letters (down the chart), and then he couldn’t see letters. So one is really, really blurry and one is not working.”
Aspinall (15-3 MMA, 8-1 UFC) was poked in both eyes toward the end of Round 1 of his first undisputed heavyweight title defense. Aspinall said he couldn’t see because of the foul – even after taking the five-minute recovery window allocated. Because he couldn’t continue, the fight was ruled a no contest. UFC CEO Dana White said a rematch between Aspinall and Gane (13-2 MMA, 10-2 UFC) will be booked.
Andy also revealed that aside from the injury, Tom is not doing too well and is taking the disappointing result of the fight quite hard.
“He’s just in a foul mood,” Andy said. “He’s not in a happy place. He’s not making his home life that happy because he’s mad and upset that we’ve spent, he’s had like three or four years now with taking Fight of the Night, taking the fight on short notice, being the back-up fighter, sitting around waiting for Jon Jones, and we get a fight, and it’s been 15 months when he got three minutes of fighting time in however long it’s been.”
Although many supported Aspinall following UFC 321, others, including fellow UFC fighters, have criticized him for not continuing to fight, questioning the severity of the injury. Andy is aware of the online chatter, but there are bigger things he’s worried about, like his son’s health.
“If he can’t see in a fight, it’s too dangerous to fight and you see the socials,” Andy said. “I don’t give a sh*t what people say. It doesn’t bother me. They’ve got opinions, and they think they’re right, or they’ve got opinions, and they want some attention, or they’ve got opinions, and they want to make a video to make some money. Let them do that. I’m not bothered by any of that. I’m just bothered that my kid has a job he likes, and he wants to do it, and he’s been fouled in a contest and the guy that fouled him has no consequence to him, and now there’s a consequence for Tom – and hopefully it will be all right. But it might not be.”
