Michael Bisping was just as frustrated as everyone else watching the way the main event unfolded at UFC 321.
Tom Aspinall’s long-awaited coronation as the UFC heavyweight champion failed to materialize after his fight against Ciryl Gane in Saturday’s main event was ruled a no contest following an accidental eye poke by the Frenchman.
Having waited nearly two years since his interim title win over Sergei Pavlovich for the chance to solidify his place at the top, Saturday’s result at Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Arena was the last thing the U.K. star needed.
"Of course, it was a disaster – an absolute fiasco," Bisping said on TNT Sports' UFC 321 post-fight show. "They've got to do something about these eye pokes. … The main thing is that his vision is going to be OK – fingers crossed. We hope. Probably will – it's just hopefully a bit of temporary vision loss and a scratched cornea or something like that. That remains to be seen. What makes it extra frustrating is all the circumstances leading into it – the time he was waiting for this moment and all the rest of it. But it was turning out to be a tremendous fight.
"That fight was great. They went at each other. They went toe-to-toe. Ciryl Gane was standing his ground. He wasn't dancing around, he wasting trying to avoid the fight, he wasn't trying to make it boring. He was standing there and having to trade. He defended the takedowns, as well. It was really looking like a tremendous fight."
Aspinall has faced some criticism online since Saturday’s fight, with many fans suggesting he should have chosen to continue. Bisping, who competed through the latter part of his career with severely impaired vision, was quick to defend his fellow Englishman.
"There's people online saying, 'When you're saying multiple times you can't see, if you want to continue you shouldn't be saying that.' Reality is, if he can't see, tell the truth," Bisping said. "If you can't see, you're allowed to say you can't see. People might point to me and say, 'Well you fought with one eye.' Yeah, it was a secret because I shouldn't have been fighting. Tom is the champion of the world and he doesn't want to go out there when his vision is impaired or massively affected and potentially lose a fight that was shaping up to be a difficult fight.
"Ciryl Gane was on point. You saw the damage on Tom's face. This was not an easy fight by any stretch of the imagination. He didn't want to continue with his vision damaged or not being able to see. I don't blame him. The crowd were upset – I get that. They were frustrated."
