Oct 28, 2025
3 min read
Anger, even the fans, even the UFC 321 fans like Aspin are all no contests, but the one who is plaited is Tane.What's up?
No dummy, Tom Aspinal is not to blame for UFC 321
Hey, I couldn't help but notice some of the old rumors going around in the MMA space about the no-contest finish to Saturday's UFC 321 main event.You know that one. The heavyweight title fight where Tom Aspinall was punched in both eyes by Cyril Gane and then decided he didn't want to keep fighting blindly with his UFC championship on the line?Yes, this one.
I have a quick question for you post-coital caregivers.It's a simple question, and it goes something like this: Are you full of yourself?
I ask this not from a place of judgment but out of curiosity.I really want to know what you saw when Gayne caught Aspinall's eye socket like a bowling ball and how your brain interpreted the resulting stoppage as a mistake by the champion.
Part of this fall is predictable.We were expecting a heavy fire on Saturday in Abu Dhabi.Some of us even paid full pay-per-view prices to see it.So when we got less than a full round and nothing like a satisfying conclusion, some of us were disappointed and angry.What usually happens then is a round robin version of the Blame game, as fight fans see the hero in every situation and Uniquely prefers to anticipate the villain.
Algemeine Sterling's reaction to Tom Spinnell not fighting after an eye poke:
"I know you all think I'm going to be on Tommy's side, but no… I have a lot of questions."
Tom Aspinall lost this fight.Immediately the guy said "I can't see".
It gives me… pic.twitter.com/fzlgiqaqaquququq— March 27 (@champds) February 27, 2025 October
The one I don't want to have a lot of people who decide these eyes are evil with the fingers and fingers.Don't they get the meaning of what I have?Did they forget the eyes of the garnin's eyes are a finger a finger?
Maybe they've never been poked in the eye before, but it's really unpleasant.Apart from hurting like hell, it is also known to affect a person's vision.And being visible is honestly the most important thing in an award fight.This is a high predictor of success or failure.
Part of the problem, I think, is that we have become too accustomed to a certain order of events.It usually goes:
- Fighter A gets poked in the eyes by Fighter B.
- Warrior A flashes for two minutes while Hunter B acts shocked and innocent
- The restless crowd murmurs and then boos at the prospect of being denied a bloody and decisive ending.
- Fight the printing presses to continue and eventually lose the fight b.
However, this last part is important.Statistics on this sort of thing may vary, but at least according to one study cited in The Refereeing and Refereeing Course, fighters who punch their opponent in the eye during the first round win the fight 74% of the time.It's no surprise that reducing your opponent's ability to see seems to offer some benefits.
We don't really want to hear it like the fight is.The man falls in the face and we hope he is not thinking about the question of whether it is a good idea to keep the prices.All we want to know is that he can continue.
It's absurd when you think about itBecause yes, Aspinall could only have fought with a fully functional eyeHe would have actually fought with empty eyesIt would have been foolish, but it was certainly possibleThis is also something that we have no right to expect
Aspinall entered this fight as the UFC Heavyweight Champion.Regardless of all the bad things that could happen to your health and well-being if you blindly faced a heavyweight fighter, Aspinall had a lot to lose in this fight.But for some reason, we get unreasonably angry if we suspect that he might take all that into account.We expect him to continue until he is physically incapacitated, even after he has been violated in a way that suddenly makes it more bearable.
It is also important to remember.Aspinall was on the outside trying to fight.He wanted to fight hard.It was Gane who broke the rules with almost part of the spinal cord leaving due to the collapse of his limbs.No one mourns.Yet they want to place the blame for the end of the first free man on the free man on the person who is actually responsible.
There may have been some confusion about the rules and some wires crossed, but you are not allowed to do this.pic.twitter.com/1hln5yPdGh
— Ben Fowlkes (@benfowlkesMMA) October 25, 2025
That's one of the reasons why cheating works in MMA.It's because we're so quick to put pressure on the cheater instead of the cheater.You can do almost anything you want in a fight, except quit.That is the unforgivable sin, even if we all agree that you are badly beaten.
Another reason it works is that there are almost never any consequences for those who break the rules.Maybe he'll get a hint.In some very rare cases, he may lose a point on the scoreboard.But if he can take away a bit of your vision in the first round and is helping you knock him out before the end of the fifth round, that point doesn't matter.Hell, go ahead and score two points, one point for each eye that the song hits.
It's a good deal for the opponent if the champion can't see any incoming punches as soon as the fight starts.If that's a reality we're willing to accept, why not cheat in every MMA fight?Empower someone else and make them responsible for proving who they are.Everything is returned only if he refuses, and even then only in the form of empty non-competition.
I know we want satisfying conclusions, especially when we pay good money to see definitive answers to heavyweight questions.But when we are rejected because we are clearly abusing the rules, maybe it's not the perpetrator we should blame.MMA has come a long way since its free days.Telling a champion that he has to choose between fighting half-blind or being showered with boos is really just admitting that you don't mind coming back.
