UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall has explained why he believes Ciryl Gane is a cheat in the wake of UFC 321.
It’s safe to say that Tom Aspinall isn’t happy, and who can blame him? At UFC 321, he suffered a double eye poke at the hands of Ciryl Gane that rendered him unable to continue in the contest. From there, we haven’t heard a whole lot about his overall condition. Now, however, the man himself has produced an update, noting that he’s been going through some fairly significant testing, and that he has yet to be cleared to return to training.
RELATED: Tom Aspinall shares vulgar message to trolls who criticized him over UFC 321 eye poke incident
Aspinall, strangely enough, has been on the receiving end of a lot of criticism, with many people calling him a quitter. While Gane has been called many things too, a lot of the focus seems to be on the idea that a rematch should be booked, and also that the Frenchman was performing quite well in the lead-up to the eye pokes.
In a recent video, Aspinall gave his thoughts on whether or not Gane intentionally cheated.
Aspinall’s view on Gane’s UFC 321 ‘cheating’
“When it initially happened, I didn’t really think much of it,” Aspinall said in a video posted on his YouTube channel. “I thought, ‘Accidental eye poke.’ Whatever. Look, when I watch the fight back, that’s when I get the gist of what’s going on. The guy was trying to poke my eyes out all the way through that round. In multiple exchanges, in every exchange I could put him in danger, he had his fingers out pointing at my eyes. … The guy was cheating from the first second. The way he wanted to win in that fight was to have me compromised by cheating.
“I think he’s a big cheater. Look at all his fights. Even Jon Jones himself, the GOAT himself, said that Ciryl Gane is a cheater and uses dirty tactics.”
Quotes via MMA Junkie