Tom Aspinall, UFC heavyweight champion, revealed this week on his Instagram page that he suffers a medical condition on both eyes that prevents him from fighting, pending evolution of his symptoms. The injury happened after a fight with Ciryl Gane on October 25, when his rival accidentally poked his eyes and the fight ended in no-contest.
On an interview with The Ariel Helwani Show on Tuesday, Aspinall said he was "very disappointed" with Dana White, UFC CEO, who back in October said that Aspinall's injury was not serious: "[White] started giving updates that there was nothing wrong with my eye, when that isn't the case... I've done a lot for the UFC, so, yeah, disappointing", the English fighter said, adding that he doesn't speak anymore with Dana.
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Aspinall maintains that White's comments, suggesting that Aspinall didn't want to end the fight, have increased the hate received on social media from people suggesting that he faked the injury to walk away from the fight, something that he has debunked showing his medical reports.
Due to the injury, an "significant traumatic bilateral Brown's syndrome", he suffers persistent diplopia (double vision) and he is not even cleared to drive, let alone fight, and depending on his evolution, he may need surgery on the eyes. "The left eye looked worse, but the right eye was the one that had the most damage. I was like a human bowling ball", he said (via ESPN).