Outside Source
UFC heavyweight champion Aspinall (15-3) is currently sidelined due to eye injuries suffered in his title defense against Ciryl Gane (13-2) last year. Gane is now scheduled to fight Alex Pereira (13-3) for an interim heavyweight title in the co-headliner at UFC White House: Freedom 250 on June 14.
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Dana White recently revealed that if Aspinall was fit, he would have defended his title against Pereira at the White House, leaving Gane out of the picture.
“100% [Aspinall vs. Pereira] would have been the fight if he was fit,” White told UFC on TNT Sports. “A lot of our champions are hurt right now. There’s a lot of things you have to deal with when you’re making these matches, with timing and everything else going on in everyone’s life, injuries. But yeah, it would have been Tom.”
Aspinall’s first title defense ended in an unfortunate no-contest after Gane simultaneously poked him in both eyes in the very first round of their UFC 320 clash last October. White initially seemed disappointed with Aspinall for not continuing with compromised vision. White said Aspinall looked like he didn’t want to be in there and also downplayed his eye surgery as “injections.” Aspinall also publicly slammed White’s comments and subsequently signed with the management of Eddie Hearn, who is a known rival of the UFC head honcho. Hearn recently said that he will do his best to not let Aspinall fight under his current UFC contract.
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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