Sean O’Malley scolds fans for questioning Tom Aspinall’s toughness amid UFC 321 eye poke fiasco

Sean O’Malley has some words for those who believe Tom Aspinall wanted a way out at UFC 321.

Aspinall and Ciryl Gane fought with the UFC Heavyweight Championship at stake this past Saturday. Aspinall walked in as the champion, and the challenger was finding some success against him. Gane utilized his movement and didn’t show fear of his opponent’s punching power.

While the opening frame was exciting, a double eye poke from Gane to Aspinall marked a premature end to the title fight. In a reaction video posted on his YouTube channel, O’Malley defended Aspinall against the critics who question his toughness (via MMAFighting).

“A lot of people in the MMA space talking about how it was disappointing Tom didn’t continue,” O’Malley said. “You’re the UFC heavyweight champion of the world, you just got poked in the eye very bad, you’re fighting a very dangerous kickboxer. It is hard to stand in front of a human being with that high level of skills and fight him with two eyes. Now you’re going to get illegally poked in the eye. It wasn’t a right hand that hit, boom, broke his orbital, eye swells up, you can’t see. That’s different. You get punched in the eye, a legal shot, your eye swells up, you can’t see, you fight through that. Tom Aspinall would fight through that. He wouldn’t get punched, eye swells up, and go, ‘I’m done. I can’t see.’

“It’s different because he got poked in the eye. That is an illegal strike. It was an accident, 100 percent believe it was an accident. I don’t think Ciryl did it on purpose. Ciryl was getting the better of Tom. But to question Tom’s toughness is insane. No one wanted that more than Tom Aspinall. He wanted to fight. He wanted to fight more than we wanted to watch him fight, so it’s hard. You can’t question Tom’s toughness. You just can’t.”

The good news for fans is that UFC CEO Dana White plans to book the rematch between Aspinall and Gane in the near future. White did admit booking the fight again will be a “pain in the [expletive],” but it must be done.

Some wonder if Gane can replicate the success he was having against Aspinall before the unfortunate ending. Only time will tell if “Bon Gamin” can pick up where he left off and whether or not that will be enough to win undisputed UFC gold.