UFC boss Dana White offers cryptic response to Tom Aspinall eye poke
Tom Aspinall's first defence of his UFC heavyweight title ended in disaster when he was poked in the eye by Ciryl Gane, bringing an end to the fight in the first round
UFC chief Dana White refused to defend Tom Aspinall after his fight with Ciryl Gane was stopped when he was poked in the eyes.
Aspinall was making the first defence of his UFC heavyweight title in Abu Dhabi but the fight was halted in the the first round when Gane stuck both fingers in the Brit's eyes. Aspinall was left struggling to see and the fight was waved off an declared a no-contest before the champion was taken to hospital.
Aspinall fumed at the boos from the crowd but UFC CEO White later said "I feel the way everybody feels. Great showing, s****y ending," he said. "I think that after the [Jon] Jones fight, a lot of people wrote Ciryl Gane off. He looked damn good tonight. It looked like we were in for a few rounds, and it was going to be a good fight.
"I can't force people to fight. If I want to arrange a bout, I can't force people to fight. You certainly can't make somebody carry on if they feel they've been injured. Only Tom knows what occurred. Could he see? Couldn't he see? Could he continue? Only he knows that."
White did confirm that he will slate an immediate rematch between the leading heavyweight contenders. “It’s total pain in the ass but yes," he said. "They’re both in shape, other than whatever’s wrong with his eye. Both guys are not injured. [We will do it] as soon as possible.
"It’s unfortunate that it ended the way that it did. And yes, I think that there probably will be a lot more interest after they saw [how Gane performed]. He had Tom bloodied up and Tom didn’t want to continue in the fight. The rematch is very interesting."
Gane, meanwhile, who had lost his previous title challenges to Jon Jones and Francis Ngannou, denied he had poked Aspinall deliberately. "" didn't do it on purpose," he explained. "I know what it is to have an eye poke because when I fought Derrick Lewis, I got an eye poke, and I was fighting two Derrick Lewis's for a full round. So, I know how it is.
"I think I started very well, because everybody knows the strategy. Every time he started really hard and surprised his opponent. I think I did very well. We defended the takedown. I touched him. We saw some blood on his nose. It was a really great first round. That's why maybe I was a little bit disappointed, a little bit sad about this issue, but this is a sport.
"I knew he loves to start really fast, so I was touching him. I was defending the takedown. In the middle of the first round, I was feeling myself in a certain flow. I started to understand really well what was happening. I thought I would end this fight... I was ready for absolutely everything, for the wrestling, for the grappling, for the striking.
"I was working on also a lot of good things that I used to show, and I used to like. The creativity in the striking is my thing. It's absolutely something I wanted to show off today."