UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall has had no vision in his right eye even three days after being accidentally poked during the title fight with Frenchman Cyril Gane.
The latter poked the Briton in both eyes while going for a punch in the first round and the bout had to be stopped as a no contest with Aspinall unable to continue in Saturday’s main event in Abu Dhabi. He retained the belt, but the UFC intends to rebook the fight, according to CEO Dana White.
The 32-year-old was taken to hospital following the fight, and after flying back to England visited an eye specialist in Manchester.
“His eye is a little bit more closed than it was. His right eye – he still can’t see anything. He said it’s just grey. His left eye’s about 50%, so one’s really blurry and one’s still not working,” Aspinall’s father Andy said on his son’s YouTube channel.
He said there will be further tests as well as a CT scan “to see if the bones are all right, but they think the bones are all right”.
“It’s bad,” Andy said. “He could have lost his sight. He’s still not got his sight in one eye, so we don’t know. We’re still waiting. Time is a healer, hopefully.”
Giving further details, he said: “[Doctors] tested him on words, and he just couldn’t see anything. His left eye went about four letters [down the chart] and then he couldn’t see letters.”
Story continues below this ad
Andy expressed concern over the chances of similar pokes to the eye and said some modifications were needed. He said they “happen a lot in MMA” and “something needs to be done in the sport to stop that happening”.
According to The Independent, as of Wednesday morning, Aspinall has extremely limited vision in his right eye. Gane’s finger went knuckle-deep into his left eye, yet most of the damage was done to the right eye of the Wigan heavyweight.
According to BBC Sport, UFC gloves are fingerless and the promotion introduced redesigned gloves in June 2024 in a bid to reduce eye pokes, cuts and hand injuries.
But in November they reverted to the original style, which had not had a major redesign since becoming mandatory in 1997.
Story continues below this ad
When asked about eye pokes in Saturday’s post-fight news conference, White said: “No matter what you do with the glove, they’re going to happen.”
Aspinall was previously out of the Octagon for 12 months in 2022-23 after sustaining a serious knee injury.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
