Heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall’s first title defense since being elevated from interim titleholder to undisputed champion didn’t live up to expectations.
Aspinall faced former interim titleholder Ciryl Gane in the UFC 321 main event last weekend in Abu Dhabi. Late in the opening round, Gane unintentionally eye poked Aspinall rendering him unable to continue. The fight was ruled a no contest and Aspinall retained the belt.
Former bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley weighed in on the eye poke that ended the UFC 321 main event and defended Aspinall against his critics.
“At first when I saw it didn’t look so bad. I zoomed in, real close up, both eyes. He got fingered. Two in the eyes. One of his fingers even went… It was deep,” O’Malley said on his YouTube channel.
“Ciryl Gane was looking so good in that first round. Tom Aspinall’s nose was bleeding. Ciryl was landing with that jab,” he continued. “Tom was kind of like coming forward. Ciryl was landing beautiful jabs, circling around. He won that round.”
Aspinall has received criticism from fans, fighters, and industry insiders for not continuing. O’Malley does not fall into that camp.
“A lot of people in the MMA space talking about how, you know, ‘It’s disappointing Tom didn’t continue.’ You’re the heavyweight champion of the world. You just got poked in the eye very bad. You’re fighting a very dangerous kickboxer, very dangerous kickboxer. It is hard to stand in front of a human being with that level of skills and fight him with two eyes.
“Now you’re going to get illegally poked in the eye. It wasn’t a right hand. He didn’t get hit. Boom, broken orbital, eye swells up, you can’t see. That’s different” O’Malley said. “You get punched in the eye, a legal shot, your eye swells up, can’t see, you fight through that. Tom Aspinall would fight through that. He wouldn’t get punched, eye swells up and go, ‘I’m done. I can’t see.’ It’s different because he got poked in the eye. That is an illegal strike. Illegal.”
O’Malley didn’t think Gane intentionally poked Aspinall in the eyes. After all, he had Gane winning the round. He did take issue with those questioning Aspinall’s toughness, though.
“To question Tom’s toughness is insane,” O’Malley said. “No one wanted that more than Tom Aspinall. He wanted to fight. He wanted to fight more than we wanted watch him fight.
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“You can’t question Tom’s toughness. You just can’t. I’ve been poked in the eye before. Not in a fight but in practice. Been poked in the eye. Boom. Whoa. You can’t see. I’m done. I’m not going to continue to practice.”
“You can’t see. It’s uncomfortable. It hurts. It’s scary. You don’t know if that’s going to come back. You don’t know if you’re going to able to see again,” O’Malley continued. “That really is a possibility. You get poked in the eye and you can’t see ever again. Let alone you’re trying to fight this guy who’s a massive, elite athlete who’s been popping you with a freaking jab. Bink, bink, bink. Now you have one eye because of an illegal strike. It’s unfortunate, but it’s like you just can’t question Tom’s on that.”
“I don’t think it’s fair to question his toughness in that moment.”
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