UFC Champion Tom Aspinall ‘Still Can’t See’ After Eye Poke, Dad Says

UFC heavyweight Tom Aspinall’s vision has been severely impacted after he suffered an injury Oct. 25 in a match-up against Ciryl Gane at UFC 321.

“His right eye can’t — still can’t see anything. Said it’s just gray. [Doctors] tested him on words and he just couldn’t see anything,” he said.

“His left eye 50%. He went about four letters [down the chart] and then couldn’t see letters. So, one’s really, really blurry — and one’s still not working.”

Andy told ESPN on Sunday that Tom narrowly avoided “bone damage” to the region but required further testing to determine the full extent of his injuries.

Andy spoke candidly about the incident in his video, saying Tom was “fouled in a contest” and arguing that Gane faced “no consequences.”

Gane apologized for the eye-poke, ESPN reported. “I’m very sorry for that — for the crowd, for the fans, for everybody,” he said.

UFC CEO Dana White said the organization aims to rebook the matchup between Aspinall and Gane, but the possibility of Aspinall being physically ready to reenter the ring remains in question. “And hopefully, it will be all right,” Tom said. “But it might not be.”

Aspinall was hospitalized Saturday after Gane accidentally poked both of his eyes in the first round, according to ESPN. Aspinall’s injury prevented him from being able to continue the fight which was ruled the first no-contest in UFC title fight resulting from an accidental foul. His father and head coach, Andy Aspinall, issued a statement Tuesday to update fans on the 32-year-old MMA fighter’s condition.

I had my left eye poked out in a match. A full force jab that hit the eyeball then slid in to the socket below the eye.

(What do you mean “poked out”? I dont know, the people in the stands said it was out when I turned toward them.)

All I saw was white light in that eye. I put my palm up to it and felt it out of the socket. Without thought I just kind of reflexively shoved it back in and worked the lids and lashes back into place.

There was only about a minute and a half or so left and I finished the match. By then my whole eye had swelled shut. It looked like a tiny sideways purple butt on my face. It didnt go down and when I pulled it open all I saw was blur for a few days. The ophthalmologist said Id be blind in that eye within a couple of weeks.

It healed and its been over 40 years. Other than a giant astigmatism, Im just now having minor problems with that eye. I was lucky, the refs were total nazis about making sure we effectively had no fingernails at weigh in so the damage was all blunt.

I know a young lady that had finished doing soil samples and was standing by the road apron when a semi passed. A tiny edged rock somehow got around her glasses and split a gouge across her cornea. It wasnt large or particularly forceful but now she cant see more than a top and bottom blur around sort of a scrambled band through the middle of that eye. They say she will likely never heal.

Ive heard some similar stories through the years. It seems eyes can recover from extreme trauma one time and for another even a comparatively small injury can do major damage depending on the type.

Hopefully for him it will be just serious blunt damage and he can recover somewhat.

When I was a kid in Mississippi, about 12 or 13, A kid got hit in the back of the head with a baseball bat when another kid was swinging getting ready to go to bat.

It popped one of his eyes out of the socket.

They rushed him to the hospital abut 30 miles away and they were able to reinsert the eye with no apparent damage.

I asked him later what it felt like and he said the bat hurt more! He said the eye being out just made everything look ‘weird’ because both eyes were looking at something different!................

His dad made that statement two days ago. What's it like today?

As of yesterday the report had changed to "extremely limited" vision in the right eye and 50% in the left, so "still can't see" definitely is OUTDATED.

Jason Herzog is every bit as much to blame as Gane because Gane fought the entire time with the gingers of his left hand extended and pointing up.

This is a screen shot from more than two minutes before the eye poke. And did Herzog call it? No, of course not. Gane is presenting his hands like he's just had a manicure and he's waiting for the polish to dry, not fighting in an MMA contest.

This is a can Dana White has been kicking down the road since the Fertittas bought the UFC. In 2016, Mister Ronda Rousey (Travis Browne) poked Matt Mitrione in the eye SO HARD that he broke his orbital socket. Referee Gary Forman didn't even call it an "eye poke."

Mitrione left the UFC shortly after and fought the rest of his MMA career at Bellator, which has anti-poking gloves (which statistically haven't reduced eye pokes but have reduced hand injuries).

And if there's anything to know about Dana White, it's that so long as the money keeps rolling in, HE DOESN'T CARE. Which is why he keeps criminals like Jon Jones and Conor McGregor on his payroll. They put butts in the bleachers, and the gate (to include the PPV) is all he cares about.

And speaking of Matt Mitrione, if you ask him I’d bet he wouldn’t change a thing with his MMA career because while he was at Bellator, he got to fight Fedor Emelianenko.

And Matt TKO’d the legendary MMA fighter of all time.

That’s a highlight reel money can’t buy.

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