You can be honorable or you can be smart — rarely can you be both.
That’s according to former UFC heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier, who now serves as color commentator and MMA analyst for ESPN. “DC”
believes Tom Aspinall “made the smart decision” by telling referee Jason Herzog he was unable to see after getting poked in the eye by Ciryl Gane , forcing a “No Contest” in the UFC 321 pay-per-view (PPV) main event last weekend in Abu Dhabi.
The honorable thing would have been to suck it up and keep fighting.
“Live to fight another day if you can’t see and you’re the reigning, defending champion,” Cormier told Chael Sonnen during their Good Guy-Bad Guy show. “If you don’t see, then don’t fight. You’ve got too much to lose. We always try to measure the smart decision vs. the honorable decision. I think Tom Aspinall just made the smart decision and that ultimately upset a lot of people.”
Including UFC CEO, Dana White.
Former UFC light heavyweight title challenger, Anthony Smith, found himself in a similar situation at UFC 235 back in early 2019. “Lionheart” got creamed by an illegal knee and could have easily captured the crown via disqualification; however, Smith believed that was “the coward’s way out” and continued fighting.
Smith went on to lose a lopsided decision.
“I thought Anthony Smith was very honorable when Jon Jones kneed him when he was on the ground,” Cormier continued. “I also thought Anthony Smith was dumb. He should’ve took the win, went home as the champion then came back and collected some pay-per-view points in the rematch. That’s just me — honorable vs. smart.”
As we’ve seen in the past, “smart” comes with considerable backlash.
Aspinall is expected to rematch Gane at some point in early 2026, though nothing is official at this time. The winner will likely move on to rematch resurgent 265-pound contender, Alexander “Drago” Volkov, later in the year — assuming we get a definitive outcome in the next heavyweight title fight.
