Francis Ngannou shares interesting take on Tom Aspinall’s eye poke fiasco at UFC 321

Francis Ngannou has weighed in on the UFC 321 controversy involving Tom Aspinall.

Aspinall put the UFC Heavyweight Championship at stake against Ciryl Gane in Abu Dhabi at the end of October. The challenger found success early on, but things took a bad turn before the end of the opening frame.

Gane accidentally caught both of the champion’s eyes with his fingers. Aspinall had difficulty seeing, and the fight was ruled a no contest.

Some fans have criticized Aspinall for not continuing to fight, but Ngannou told TMZ Sports that he understands why the bout couldn’t go on (via MMAJunkie).

“I think that eye poke made a lot of news – more than the fight itself, more than the announcement of the fight,” Ngannou told TMZ Sports. “It was a very controversial feeling, and I understand there was a lot of frustration from the fans’ side who were so excited to see the outcome. But there was definitely an eye poke, and it compromised the vision of Tom. So the normal decision in that position is not to fight.

“Because the eye poke is not like you get kicked in the balls and you can recover and come back. It compromises your vision. If you’re doing a combat sport with compromised vision, it’s not good at all … What if your vision is compromised? Then maybe because of that, something happens, you lose the fight. The same people will say how stupid you were, you should have stopped, blah, blah, blah.”

The UFC brass will be booking Aspinall vs. Gane again in the near future. Which card the rematch might fall on remains to be seen, but UFC CEO Dana White said it’ll be a done deal “as soon as possible.” BJPenn.com will keep you updated on the latest news regarding the rematch between Aspinall and Gane.