
Tom Aspinall was unable to continue his first undisputed UFC heavyweight title defense after challenger Ciryl Gane accidentally poked Aspinall's right eye at 4:35 of the opening round. Aspinall was given the permitted five minutes to recover, but remained unable to see and referee Jason Herzog stopped the bout, resulting in a no-contest. The foul appeared to make contact with both of Aspinall's eyes, primarily affecting the right eye. The outcome represents the first time a UFC title fight ended in a no-contest due to an accidental foul and leaves uncertainty in the heavyweight division.
""This is bulls---, the fight was just getting going," Aspinall said. "Complete bulls----. I'm pissed off. I can hardly open my eye.""
""I'm very sorry for that -- for the crowd, for the fans, for everybody," Gane said. "I'm sorry for myself. We put a lot of energy into this fight. I'm very disappointed, but this is the sport.""
Read at ESPN.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]