Tom Aspinall discusses eye surgery and fan backlash after UFC no-contest

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Britain's Tom Aspinall reacts after being hit in the eye while fighting France's Ciryl Gane during their UFC heavyweight title bout at UFC 321 at Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi early on October 26, 2025. (Photo by Giuseppe CACACE / AFP) (Photo by GIUSEPPE CACACE/AFP via Getty Images) | AFP via Getty Images Tom Aspinall was in serious pain after multiple eye surgeries — which are worse than any surgery he’s ever had. The UFC heavyweight champion hasn’t competed since fighting Ciryl Gane to a no-contest at UFC 321 this past October after the bout was stopped following multiple eye pokes from Gane. Speaking on Great Company With Jamie Lang, Aspinall describes how painful his surgeries were following the fight. “I’ve had three [eye] surgeries,” Aspinall said. “I had one on the left and two on the right. By the way, I’ve had the snip, right? I’ve had a vasectomy, and I was thinking that has got to be the worst surgery ever. Mate, compared to eye surgery, it is nothing. Honestly. “It’s f*cking horrendous,” Aspinall continues. “So they kept me awake. I lay awake, they put something on to keep your eyeball open… and obviously, they numb it and stuff. They numb your eye. They did drops and then an injection on the side. Mate, they’re coming at you with like a scalpel or knife, or whatever it’s called and you’re just watching them slice your eyeball open. It was horrendous.” Aspinall captured the interim heavyweight title with a 69 second knockout of Sergei Pavlovich at UFC 295 in November 2023. He went on the defend that title, stopping Curtis Blaydes at UFC 304 in July 2024 in a minute, and was then promoted to undisputed champ after Jon Jones notified the UFC of his retirement 11 months later. Following the fight with Gane — who is now the interim heavyweight champ after finishing Alex Pereira at UFC White House — Aspinall faced a heap of backlash from the fanbase for taking an easy way out of the fight. When asked if he was scared he’d never be able to see again, Aspinall responded honestly, and tied in the fan reaction to describe the very rarely talked about difficulties of being a high-level MMA fighter. “At first, I was super scared about it, to be honest,” Aspinall explained. “Especially like the first two weeks. Yeah, I was really scared about it. … “This is something that I’ve learned to understand the hard way: When you’re fighting somebody, you’re just Saturday night entertainment. That’s it. If you’re not in that fight, then people are going to root against you, and that’s the way it is. It’s shit. It’s a bad situation. But I can’t expect millions of people to care for me personally. They want to see me have a fight with somebody. That’s what they paid for. And it’s shit, and it’s harsh, and it’s not very nice, but that’s what it is. “I still get comments like, ‘Oh he f*cking ducked out of the fight, he didn’t want to be there’ and stuff like that, but a lot of MMA fans have also never had a fight in their life, and I don’t expect them to understand what it takes to get to where I’ve got to. It’s just as simple as that, and you don’t see many fighters coming out and saying it. It’s always people who have never had a fight. If you’re going to sit behind your phone and comment on the toughness of a professional MMA fighter, then you don’t really know what you’re talking about.”