A doctor has rubbished claims from those who suggested Tom Aspinall quit his fight against Ciryl Gane due to feeling he might lose the encounter at UFC 321 as he assessed the eye injuries the fighter sustained.
The main event of the evening in Abu Dhabi came to a premature and abrupt end following an accidental double eye poke from Gane on Aspinall.
Gane's attempted punch towards the end of the first round led to UFC heavyweight champion Aspinall being unable to see following the illegal move, and it led to the match referee declaring the bout a no contest rather than a disqualification for Gane, and it meant the evening came to an early finish.
Aspinall cut a frustrated figure in the octagon and hit back at those in the crowd who were booing him following the no contest decision.
Speaking to the crowd while in the octagon, Aspinall, who did not attend the post-fight press conference due to going to hospital, said: "Guys, I just got poked knuckle deep in the eyeball. Why are you booing? I can't see.
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"The fight was just getting going. I can hardly open my eye. Look! It was a double eye poke."
For his part, Gane apologised to Aspinall, the fans and also himself that the fight ended in that way.
He said: "We put a lot of energy in this fight so I'm disappointed, but this is the sport, this is life.
"I don't know what is going to happen for the future, but we will see."
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Since the bout was halted early towards the end of only the first round, some have questioned if Aspinall could have continued, while some have even suggested that the Briton pulled out of the fight after a poor first round where Gane appeared to have the upper hand.
But that suggestion has been rubbished by a doctor who has analysed the injuries Aspinall suffered in detail following the accidental double eye poke.
Dr Brian Sutterer runs a YouTube channel where he looks into the medical side of sports and has cast his verdict on Aspinall's no contest against Gane.
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And he has dismissed any suggestions from fans who claim that Aspinall was 'faking' or over exaggerating his injuries in a bid to get out of a fight he did not appear to be on top of after the first round.
In a seven-minute long video, Dr Sutterer said: "Right off the bat, for any MMA fans watching this saying that Aspinall quit, that he was trying to duck Gane and knew he was going to lose anyway so he claimed he couldn't see.
"Absolute, complete nonsense! There is nothing about what we saw here that should be regarded as him faking this or making it up.
"I don't care that one of his eyes was open during the interview. There's nothing about this that should be interpreted as him making an excuse or trying to get out of the fight."
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He added: "This is 100% enough that you would expect vision to be affected.
"If a fighter is telling you that they cannot open their eyes, they cannot then see things to protect themselves and you have no choice but to end the fight. I don't want to hear any of this 'he was faking or ducking'. It's very legitimate."
Topics: MMA, Tom Aspinall, UFC, Injury
John McDougall