UFC fan favourite Matt Brown has called for instant disqualifications to tackle eye pokes, after Tom Aspinall’s title defence on Saturday ended in an early No Contest.
Aspinall was poked in both eyes at the same time by Ciryl Gane, who was challenging the Briton for the UFC heavyweight title, and Aspinall could not continue fighting after the accidental foul. As such, the bout was ruled a No Contest in the very first round, and Aspinall was taken to a local hospital in Abu Dhabi.
On Wednesday, Aspinall’s father and head coach Andy revealed that his son’s vision was still extremely limited in one eye and “50 per cent” in the other.
Retired UFC legend Brown discussed the matter on The Fighter vs The Writer, saying: “I’ve really been disgusted with that narrative that you’re talking about, where everybody’s blaming Tom Aspinall.
“Where did this come from? How did he do anything wrong? People saying, ‘Oh should have just sucked it up with one eye.’ Get the f*** out of here. What are you talking about? We’re not in a death match. This isn’t f*****g like Street Fighter, it’s not a video game. This is a professional competition. He wants to win and give himself the best chance of winning.
“For one, I think Tom Aspinall would have continued had there been the right circumstance. Like if his life was on the line or something but he’s like, ‘I can’t see out of my eye.’ He probably couldn’t see out of his other eye very well either. The one that got knuckle f*****g deep.
“It’s like, live to fight another day. Try again. If this was anything other than this match, I don’t think it would even be talked about that way. This particular match, the circumstances just added up where now Tom Aspinall is an easy target.”
American Brown seemed to be hinting at the fact that many observers believed Gane was winning the round, with statistics showing he had a slight edge in the striking. Gane also successfully defended a takedown, although he appeared to poke Aspinall in the eye while doing so – before the fight-ending foul itself, even.
“What sucks is he’s almost in a lose-lose situation at that point,” Brown said of Aspinall. “The only saving grace would have been if he went out with one eye and ended up beating the s*** out of Ciryl Gane. If any other situation happens, it’s a loss for him. [If] he lost, they’re not going to be talking about him getting eye poked and [how he] couldn’t see and that’s why he lost.”
Brown, 44, also called for instant disqualifications in similar scenarios in the future, rather than No Contests.
“We are in a sport now, not just a street fight,” Brown said. “It is an actual sport, there are rules. When one guy breaks the rules, the other guy should not deal with the punishment for that. It shouldn’t be a No Contest. It should be a disqualification.
“If you want to set a standard – which is what rules are meant for, to have standards – then you follow that standard and you make a DQ. It doesn’t mean [Gane] shouldn’t get another rematch. I think it would be fair to get another rematch, but he should get a DQ here.”
Indeed, UFC president Dana White said at Saturday’s post-fight press conference that he will book Aspinall vs Gane 2 as soon as possible.
Had Aspinall been able to continue fighting at UFC 321, Gane might have been docked a point; it is up to the referee to judge whether an eye poke is intentional or not, and to punish them accordingly. However, eye pokes are almost never deemed intentional in mixed martial arts.
That said, referee Jason Herzog had appeared to warn Gane about fighting with his fingers extended earlier in the round, and the official went over the rules with Aspinall and his French challenger in their changing rooms before the bout.
