After months of anticipation, Tom Aspinall and Ciryl Gane finally met atop UFC 321 at Abu Dhabi. However, nobody had thought the fight would come to an end like this. As the first round began, Aspinall landed a brutal body kick and attempted a head kick, while Gane countered with sharp jabs and low kicks. Both fighters were trading heavy strikes. 

Gane bloodied Aspinall’s nose during an exchange, and the champ looked like he may have been struggling from the get-go. However, what happened next was shocking, to put it mildly. A double eye poke from Ciryl Gane halted the fight, with Tom Aspinall, vision impaired, unable to continue. Immediately after, doctors invaded the Octagon, and referee Jason Herzog called a no-contest, leaving the heavyweight division in chaos.

Tom Aspinall doesn’t understand booing from fans

The Etihad Arena erupted in chaos after the sudden and abrupt ending to the fight, as boos started echoing through the stadium. “I just got poked knuckled-deep in the eyeball,” Tom Aspinall said during his post-fight interview inside the cage. “What the f—k, why are you booing? What am I supposed to do about it? I didn’t do the poke, I can’t see!”

“This is bulls—t. The fight was just getting going. Look at this, a double eye poke,” he continued, referring to the replay on the big screen. The French heavyweight wasn’t spared from the loud boos either when it was his turn to speak. “I’m very sorry about this,” he said, adding, “for the crowd, for Tom Aspinall, for myself. This is the sport.”

This fight was supposed to be his first UFC heavyweight title defense after Jon Jones abruptly retired earlier this year, and the belt was passed down to Aspinall. Regardless, the chaos in the arena quickly moved to social media, as fans started turning on the English heavyweight champion, speculating whether he could last against Jones. 

Jon Jones is predicted to win against Aspinall

The leading narrative going into UFC 321 was how Aspinall was too high above everyone else in terms of skill at heavyweight. Jones’ unwillingness to fight him added to it. But the story took a full 360-degree turn after the anticlimactic end in Abu Dhabi.

Despite being blameless, Aspinall quickly found himself under fire, with one user claiming that Jon Jones would easily maul him in a fight. The user wrote, “Jon Jones would’ve done horrible things to Tom Aspinall.” This narrative took shape from Jones beating Gane with ease in their first meeting, and Aspinall struggling in the striking department tonight. 

Another user mocked Gane for his game plan. The user commented, “Ciryl Gane’s game plan to beat Tom Aspinall,” sharing a GIF of a man poking another in the eyes. 

A third user claimed the eye poke gave Jon Jones an idea. The user remarked, “Jon Jones seeing Tom Aspinall get poked in the eye and he starts salivating about what he could do to the man.” Jones himself was infamous for eye pokes, and jokes were flying around how he could have easily beaten Aspinall.

Someone else sympathized with Aspinall. The user wrote, “Tom Aspinall got the worst luck ever, damn.” He sat out for 455 days, and his last fight was only sixty seconds. He was marred by inactivity by no fault of his own. Still, what are the chances of getting poked in both eyes at the same time? 

Meanwhile, this user felt Ciryl Gane was winning the fight. The user commented, “Gane was putting that pressure on Tom. That’s why he doing that.” However, it was too early to judge. 

It seems Tom Aspinall has fallen out of favor with fans — and surprisingly, not for anything he’s done wrong. But does he really deserve all the backlash? What do you think Aspinall should do now?