While there wasn’t an official winner to the UFC 321 main event between Tom Aspinall and Ciryl Gane, BKFC star and Dirty Boxing promoter Mike Perry believes Jon Jones may have won big.
After an eye poke
from Gane, Aspinall could not continue towards the end of the first round, leading to this past Saturday’s heavyweight championship bout ending in a No Contest. Aspinall was promoted from interim to undisputed champ after Jones announced his retirement from the sport after the two were linked together for quite some time.
The result was unfortunate, but Gane proved he belonged in the octagon with the champ, arguably on his way to winning the first round. Of course, Jones finished Gane in quick order to win the heavyweight title at UFC 285 in March 2023, and while MMA math doesn’t always work, Perry can’t help but factor it into the equation.
“I’ve been on Jon Jones’ side, you know, he’s been at the top of the game and the gap’s not close. The gap is nowhere near close,” Perry told MMA Fighting while promoting Thursday’s DBX 4 event. “He’s been on top of the game for over 20 years. It’s unheard of. It’s impossible to do what he’s done. Jon did it, man, and coming from a tough fighter like myself who’s been in battles, I haven’t always been the cleanest, but I still grind and get the wins and, it’s a really cool way to do it sometimes in my book. But Jon has been perfect, and you can’t copy that.
“So, it just goes to show, Tom Aspinall has been a great fighter. He kind of came out of nowhere with the jumping in Jon’s boots and calling him for the fight. That’s how these fights happen. That’s how these things get done sometimes – you’ve got to call for it. Closed mouths don’t get fed. All the banter that comes behind it with the U.K. fans and believing that Tom is this and that, and that Jon was never all of those things that he was, it’s funny how these things manifest sometimes.
“Nothing against Tom. He was asking the derogatory question of have you ever been f*ngered by an MMA fighter? And it was such a funny little clip for all these haters on the internet. They just love it. The little haters just love it in their grandma’s basement and somebody got f*ngered by an MMA fighter and it wasn’t what you wanted. I hope he heals up well. I hope he can make it back to the ring. I have no ill will towards Tom Aspinall. I know nothing really about him, except he’s been an accomplished fighter and he was a champion and Jonn saw something we didn’t and you know, the fact that nobody really wanted the Jon Jones vs. Alex Pereira fight [back when Jones was champ], that’s the fight. it’s been the fight and Jon saw that a while ago. Jon’s the best ever and I can say that as being one of the baddest, toughest, roughest guys, man. I’m super happy to have him as a partner here in DBX.”
Perry is recently coming off of a win in his long-awaited BKFC return, stopping Jeremy Stephens earlier this month at BKFC 82. “Platinum” now puts the promoter hat back on ahead of DBX 4, which takes place in Nashville, headlined by Gable Steveson vs. Billy Swanson. Dirty Boxing had a similar thing happen as the UFC 321 main event with Phil Hawes poking fellow UFC vet Sasha Palatnikov in the eye multiple times at DBX 2, with that fight ending in a disqualification.
Aspinal has taken a lot of heat from a chunk of the MMA community for not continuing in the fight, and Perry was asked to give his thoughts about those who say Aspinall “quit,” or was “looking for a way out,” or that he should’ve continued.
“That’s easy to say,” Perry said. “I remember Diego Sanchez: I think he got kneed on the ground or he got an eye poke or something [against Michel Pereira] and he was like, ‘You know what? I can’t continue,’ and he got that show and win money, boy. Sometimes you got to do what’s smarter for you and not just for the entertainment of the fans. I mean, it was smarter that Aspinall saved some of his record. You go back in there with one eye, you don’t have that mean streak in you cause Gane’s landing shots and, and you’re not sure what you can do with one eye, or the pain in your eye is bothering you so bad, you can’t even focus and concentrate. It gets him a no contest on his record. … It’s not a defeat and he’ll come back, like Dana White said, it makes the rematch look more appealing and that’s the fight game, man. These things happen.
“People on the internet who don’t fight, or even if they do and they just don’t at a high level. Somebody’s always going to have something to say and it never matters. The only ones that matter are the ones who put the time in, put the work, the effort, make the weights, or do the hard parts and get in the ring and perform.”
Even UFC CEO Dana White didn’t fully put his support behind Aspinall at the post-fight press conference, making it less about Gane poking Aspinall in the eye, and more about Aspinall not continuing.
Perry reacted to that, and doubled down on Jones coming out an overall winner despite Aspinall vs. Gane not ending in a clear and concise matter.
“Well, I mean, I would look for a way to save that O on my [win streak],” Perry explained. “If we’re in there and I’m getting touched up and bloody, and I got one eye, if there’s any thought in my head that’s like, ‘I can’t come back and win this fight,’ then I need to find a new strategy and, you know, fast feet think quick.
“He thought quick, or he got poked and through that pain of something like that, sometimes that’s all you can focus on. Dana is, get him oiled up, man. Him and Jon are back best friends again. We can all be happy about it. Jon is the true legend that we knew he was, and I hate that sometimes people even thought otherwise. ‘Maybe Tom could do something, maybe this, maybe that.’ No. Facts are facts, and one fact I know is that I’m the King of Violence because this bare knuckle shit is real, dog.”
