Tom Aspinall’s first undisputed UFC heavyweight title defense ended with a whimper instead of a bang.
The UFC 321 main event between Aspinall and Ciryl Gane in Abu Dhabi was shaping up to be an intriguing
battle, but ended in the dying seconds of the first round after Gane sank his fingers into Aspinall’s eyeballs like he was trying to palm a basketball. Aspinall attempted to recover but couldn’t, and the bout was ruled a No Contest.
It’s the latest strange moment in Aspinall’s career, and we’re starting to wonder whether the British heavyweight is cursed. When things go right, they go very right: Aspinall has blasted through most of his UFC competition in under a round. But when they go wrong, boy do they go wrong.
There was the knee injury that cost him his fight against Curtis Blaydes in 2022 and kept him sidelined for a year. Then there was the year and a half he spent as interim champion, waiting and waiting for Jon Jones to fight him. That never panned out, and Aspinall spent even more time on the sidelines just twiddling his thumbs.
When Jones finally relinquished the title rather than face Aspinall in June, the UFC treated it like an afterthought. No big announcement. No hype at all. Just Dana White randomly telling the press at a UFC Azerbaijan post-fight press conference while Hunter Campbell rushed to give Aspinall a courtesy call on the situation.
Now we have this latest bump in the road. What was supposed to be Aspinall’s big coming out party as the undisputed champion has ended in disappointment. He certainly can’t be blamed: Gane didn’t just ‘poke’ Aspinall, he jammed his fingers deep into both Tom’s eyeballs. But the result is the same: more frustration and disappointment, and no forward momentum or starpower gained.
While the heavyweight division is in shambles, at least we had Tom Aspinall as champ. But between all the top stars avoiding Aspinall and strange bounces like this happening, we have to wonder whether he’s the guy who can make us forget about the division’s trouble, or will his potential greatness be overshadowed by one bad break after another.
