Outside Source
Aspinall put his heavyweight title on the line against Ciryl Gane at UFC 321 last weekend in Abu Dhabi. The fight abruptly ended in a no contest as Aspinall was unable to continue from a double eye poke by Gane in the first round. The eye poke and Aspinall’s decision to stop fighting have left fans and pundits divided.
Sterling is among those who believe Aspinall could have perhaps continued fighting. Judging by online images of Aspinall’s eye injury, Sterling doesn’t think it was severe. Also joking at his own expense, “Funkmaster” wondered if Aspinall was using his “Aljamain Sterling acting.”
“Was he using his best Aljamain Sterling acting attributes to take home the gold? I know you all think I’m gonna be on the side of Tommy, but I’m not,” Sterling said on “The Weekly Scraps” podcast. “He posted his eye after the fight… and apparently, from what was posted, it looks like everything was okay.”
Sterling Known for Controversial DQ Win in Title Bout
Sterling won the bantamweight title with a disqualification win over Petr Yan due to an illegal knee. Yan kneed Sterling flush in the head while he was still grounded. However, Sterling received a lot of flak on social media, becoming fodder for acting memes.
Sterling claims he tried his best to recover and continue fighting. According to Sterling, Aspinall messed up when he bluntly told the doctor that he couldn’t see. Sterling believes a fighter who wants to continue will never directly say that they can’t see, as it inevitably means an end to the fight. Sterling doubts Aspinall’s eyes were hurting as much as the Englishman claimed.
“The reason why I think it doesn’t look good – Tommy Aspinall was losing that fight,” Sterling said. “Right away the guy is saying, ‘I can’t see.’ That is the one thing I have to say, Tommy really really f—ed up. You can’t say, ‘I can’t see.’ We know those are the nail in the coffin to any fight… So if you actually want your five minutes to try to recover to see if you can stay in the fight, you can’t use those words… I got illegally kneed, blasted in the head. I got destroyed on social media for a year and a half. I am sitting on the ground and I go, ‘Give me my time and I’ll see if I can recover’… The fight looked like it was starting to get tough [for Aspinall]… And it makes me question, ‘Did that hurt as much as you said it did?’”
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
Help support MMACrazies.com when you shop Amazon by starting your online Amazon shopping at MMACrazies.com/recommends/amazon. You are not charged extra, but we receive a small and very helpful commission on everything you purchase. Thanks for thinking of us every time you shop at Amazon.
