Francis Ngannou has defended Tom Aspinall over his decision to withdraw from his UFC heavyweight title defense against Ciryl Gane at UFC 321 after being poked in the eye.
In the main event in October, Aspinall was defending the undisputed heavyweight title for the first time when Gane poked him in the eyes twice — both times in the first round.
The second poke affected both of Aspinall’s eyes and despite a recovery break of five minutes, the British fighter could not continue. Aspinall went on to hospital after the bout was declared a no contest.
UFC president Dana White has already stated a rematch would be booked at the earliest opportunity. However, Aspinall’s father has said that his son is still feeling the effects of the incident and can’t see out of his right eye.
Numerous fighters have spoken out about the incident, with Jon Jones particularly critical of Aspinall when he insisted Gane was dominating the fight.
However, another former UFC star has now spoken out, with Ngannou defending Aspinall’s actions.
“I think that eye poke made a lot of news – more than the fight itself, more than the announcement of the fight,” Ngannou said in an interview with TMZ.
“I understand that there was a lot of frustration, basically on the fans’ side. [They] were so excited to see the outcome, but there was definitely an eye poke and compromised vision for Tom.
“The eye poke is not like you get kicked in the balls and you can recover and come back. It’s not like a pain; it compromises your vision. And if you’re doing a combat sport with compromised vision, it’s not good at all
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“What if your vision is compromised, then you keep going and — maybe because of that — something happens. You lose the fight, the same people will say how stupid you were, ‘You should’ve stopped, blah blah blah.’
“So, I think it’s just fan frustration, although there was an eye poke [which] should be respected. Not intentional of course, but there was an eye poke that definitely causes damage and affected vision.”
Ngannou has not competed in MMA since October 2024, when he finished Renan Ferreira in his PFL debut. Prior to that he suffered a second round defeat to Anthony Joshua in a Boxing match.