Tom Aspinall has still not regained full vision nearly four full months after he was poked in the eyes by Ciryl Gane in their October title fight.
The UFC’s heavyweight champion recently underwent surgery to repair damage to both of his eyes as he hopes to resume his fighting career.
“Right now, I’ve got a black spot in my eye and it’s there constantly,” Aspinall recently told Petesy Carroll of Uncrowned.
The natural ocular healing process did not result in fully restored vision in the weeks and months immediately following the UFC 321 main event, which ended in a no-contest, so Aspinall ended up waiting more than 100 days before undergoing surgery on both of his eyes earlier this month to hopefully help fix the lingering issues.
Carroll accompanied Aspinall to Optegra Eye Hospital in Manchester, where Dr. Shafiq Rehman explained that “a significant eye poke … led to a few different issues. He also has visual field defects.”
Aspinall was poked in the eyes multiple times by Gane during their fight, which didn’t even make it to the end of the opening round. The fight-ending foul was a double eye gouge that left Aspinall unable to continue with blurred vision in his left eye and completely unable to see out of his right eye.
One issue Aspinall is still dealing with is double vision on one side that’s so severe it results in him feeling sick any time he attempts footwork drills when exercising.
Aspinall hasn’t been able to resume a full training schedule, but has attempted to stay fit as much as he can as he recovers.
“Every time I try to change direction, it’s very (disorienting),” Aspinall said. “The best way I can describe it is that it feels like I’m standing on a boat. I get really dizzy and it’s very difficult to focus on the area I’m attacking. It’s like I don’t know where I’m going.”
The eye injuries are not the first setbacks of Aspinall’s UFC career. However, they are the most significant.
Aspinall’s lone loss in the UFC happened in summer 2022 when he blew out his knee in the opening seconds of a matchup with Curtis Blaydes in London. Aspinall was 5-0 with five finishes in the UFC prior to that injury, which ended up keeping him out of action for a full year.
“The knee is annoying when you’re trying to move, but when you sit down it’s completely fine,” Aspinall explained. “With the eye, as long as I’m awake it’s constantly there, reminding you of the situation you’re in.”
The 32-year-old from the Manchester area returned to the cage — in the same venue in London no less — 364 days after his knee injury and stopped Marcin Tybura in just 73 seconds before winning an interim UFC title later in 2023 with a 69-second knockout of Sergei Pavlovich.
Aspinall defended his interim title in July 2024 when he simultaneously avenged his previous loss to Blaydes. He was promoted to undisputed champion in June 2025 when UFC president Dana White announced Jon Jones was retiring.
Unfortunately for Aspinall and for mixed martial arts fans around the world, much of his prime fighting years were wasted as he was not booked for a fight between his rematch with Blaydes and his bout with Gane.
Jones would not agree to fight Aspinall, so the UFC eventually moved on from what would’ve been a blockbuster title unification bout, but Aspinall went 455 days in limbo and when he finally did return to competition, he was fouled and left dealing with potentially permanent ramifications.
Aspinall had been fully healthy and eager to compete, but it seems the business side of the UFC took precedence over the competition aspect of the sport itself.
“I love martial arts,” Aspinall told Carroll. “I absolutely love it. I’ll never stop loving it, but I just hate the business. I think that fighters are just completely replaceable and the business will make you feel like that any chance it gets. Even if you get hit with an illegal move, which could affect the rest of your life, they don’t really give a s—. And no one else does either.”
It’s not merely his career that has been drastically altered.
Aspinall has a wife and three young children and his injuries have limited how helpful he can be domestically. He is unable to use a car, for example, so he can’t drive his kids to school.
The UFC’s heavyweight division is in a putrid state at the moment with an injured champion and a dearth of high-level challengers worthy of a title shot.
But the current state of his weight class is not among Aspinall’s concerns.
“I’m not even thinking about fighting at the minute,” Aspinall added. “All I’m thinking about is getting my health right, so thinking about a return date is pointless until that happens.”
