Tom Aspinall accuses Ciryl Gane of intentional eye pokes at UFC 321: ‘He was cheating from the first second’

It’s been just over five weeks since Ciryl Gane poked Tom Aspinall in both eyes, ending their UFC 321 title fight in a disappointing ‘No Contest.’ Everyone and their mother has an opinion on Aspinall’s decision not to continue, and more than a few people have mocked Tom for ‘quitting.’

Now the UFC heavyweight champion is speaking in a new video on YouTube, and he’s not happy with how things went down. The British are well known for their sarcastic wit and Tom wasn’t holding back talking about the condition of his eyes.

“Mate, I’ve been having a lovely time just in and out of the hospital, getting all kinds of different tests on my eyes and speaking to specialists, speaking to surgeons, speaking to doctors,” Aspinall said. “Oh, it’s been a fantastic time.”

“I actually got eye poked twice in the fight,” he explained. “First one wasn’t too bad. He got warned for it. The second one, obviously, Ciryl Gane tried to make my head a bowling ball with the double eye poke, knuckle deep in both. So, yeah, wouldn’t recommend it at all.”

“I think that when it initially happened, I didn’t really think much of it,” Aspinall said. “I thought, ‘Accidental eye poke, whatever.’ But when I watched the fight back, that’s when I really got the gist of what was going on. The guy was trying to poke my eyes out all the way through that round.”

“Multiple exchanges, nearly every exchange that I could put him in danger, he had his fingers out pointing towards my eyes … The guy was cheating from the first second, and the way that he wanted to win that fight was to have me compromised by cheating.”

The YouYube video included a breakdown of clips from the fight showing Gane throwing his outstretched fingers at Aspinall’s face.

“My thoughts on him?” Aspinall concluded. “I think he’s a big cheater.”

Aspinall also fired back at those who believe he should have kept fighting after the foul.

“I didn’t continue,” he said. “I’ll tell you why I didn’t continue. Because I’m not a dummy. Like, I’m not gonna go out there and fight one of the best strikers in the world if I can’t see. If you get double eye poked in both eyes and you’ve got no vision because of a foul, why should I carry on so some dummy can look and say, ‘Oh, yeah, Tom just got knocked out.'”

“I ain’t gonna fight if I can’t see anything because of a foul. If it’s a legal move, we have to fight through it. That’s what we do as fighters. But when it’s a foul, why am I gonna put my health at risk when I can’t see at all?”

Aspinall said he’s still being treated by doctors and eye specialists and has no clear indication of when he might be able to return to training, let alone fight again.

“It’s not up to me, it’s up to the doctors,” he said. “At the minute I’m not allowed to do nothing, so I’m just following advice at the moment. What’s next? What’s next for me right now is this talk of surgery on the eye.”

“We’re gonna see how it goes over the next few weeks. Obviously, that’s down to the specialists and stuff, but I’m not in the gym training at the moment. I’m not doing anything MMA-wise at the moment. I’m just following the doctor’s orders right now and, seeing what happens with my health.”

In the last update days after UFC 321, Aspinall’s father said Tom was not happy with how the past couple of years have played out. Tom shared a similar outlook now, a month later.

“If you were sidelined from doing your job for like fifteen months, not allowed to do anything,” Aspinall said. “You train your ass off for six months for a fight, then get double eye poked, be left with no vision for nearly six weeks because of an illegal move.”

“How do you think I feel? Not feeling fantastic, am I?”