UFC heavyweight legend defends Tom Aspinall after UFC 321 eye poke controversy
UFC heavyweight legend Alistair Overeem has defended Tom Aspinall following his eye poke controversy at UFC 321.
Over the course of the last few weeks, Tom Aspinall has come under a lot of scrutiny after a double eye poke rendered him unable to continue in his UFC 321 main event against Ciryl Gane. Despite the fact that the incident clearly impacted his vision pretty dramatically, the Englishman hasn’t been getting a whole lot of sympathy from the mixed martial arts world.
While some fighters have been quite understanding, others have taken this opportunity to throw shots at Aspinall. It hasn’t been MMA’s finest hour, in all honesty, but at the very least, it seems like there (hopefully) won’t be any long-lasting repercussions from the eye pokes, ensuring that Tom will be able to resume his career when he’s healthy enough to do so.
In a recent interview with Bloody Elbow, Alistair Overeem became the latest fighter to actually defend Aspinall after the incident.
Overeem defends Aspinall after UFC 321
“We can all see on the pictures that the eye poke was very deep,” Overeem stated. “I don’t know if you’ve ever had an eye poke but it can be very painful, especially if it’s going to go in that deep. There’s going to be damage and even if there would not be permanent damage and just a bruise, it would be very painful.”
“I think, looking at Aspinall’s face, he was in pain. I’ll tell you this, if you’re in a fight, adrenaline levels spike, you’re not supposed to feel pain. So, if you’re in a fight and you feel pain, after the fight when those adrenaline levels drop, you’re going to be in excruciating pain. So I think Aspinall made the right call to decide not to fight and I think we can all be happy that he doesn’t have permanent eye damage.”
“I think a rematch is warranted since the eye poke was accidental,” Overeem said.
Quotes via Bloody Elbow
This article appeared first on BJPENN.COM
Topics:
Alistair Overeem Tom Aspinall UFC
