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There’s been widespread debat on whether Tom Aspinall should have continued fighting at UFC 321. | Getty/UFC
Renowned sports medicine doctor Brian Sutterer recently weighed in on Tom Aspinall’s eye injury.
Aspinall looked to defend his heavyweight title for the first time against Ciryl Gane in the main event at UFC 321 last weekend in Abu Dhabi. “Honey Badger” was simultaneously poked in both eyes by Gane late in the first round. The fight was declared a no contest after Aspinall failed to recover his vision.
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However, some fighters and fans believe Aspinall should have continued fighting. While Chael Sonnen believes Aspinall should have continued with an injured eye, Aljamain Sterling didn’t think the eye was seriously injured in the first place. Sutterer explained why Aspinall’s eye could be more compromised than it appears. According to Sutterer, Aspinall’s eyes suffered enough trauma to impair his vision, even though they didn’t appear to be severely injured.
Doctor: ‘I Think It Was Handled Perfectly’
“Everybody seems to lashing out at the fact that even at the hospital, afterwards, the doctor said, ‘Well there’s no serious damage.’ People thought that his eye visually looked OK,” Sutterer told Ariel Helwani. “The doctor that was covering the fight said the eye looks OK. The there’s a big difference between something looking OK and something functioning OK. When you get knuckles dug deep into your eyes, not just on one side but on both sides, that’s plenty of force, that’s plenty of trauma to cause your eye to not function the right way even though it might objectively look okay… I think it was handled perfectly.”
Aspinall’s father recently claimed that the heavyweight champ still can’t see out of his right eye and only has partial vision in his left eye.
Brian Stutter MD (sports medicine doctor) explains why Tom Aspinall’s eye poke was more serious than it looked 👀😳
“There’s a big difference between something looking ok and something functioning ok. When you get knuckles dug deep into your eyes… that’s plenty of force &… pic.twitter.com/3pr69bCyoV
— Red Corner MMA (@RedCorner_MMA) October 28, 2025
This article first appeared at Recent News on Sherdog.com
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