Does anyone here feel sympathetic for Tom Aspinall?

[chinarice]

Was pretty indifferent about Tom before the fight. Seeing how much he's triggered people for the most ridiculous of reasons, I kinda want him to win the rematch emphatically and go full heel on all the fans that shit on him because Gane cheated lol

 

[RockyLockridge]

@RockyLockridge liking my comment - a late xmas present.

you're a great poster i like a lot of your content.

 

[loisestrad]

Sucked that he got fingered in a fight. Oh no! The horror!

Sucks that he didn't just suck it up, as if he was some ballerina in a dance and not in a fight that he was losing.

Would Jon Jones have quit? Who knows. Jones hasn't been in that position.

 

[Mammothman]

Just the same like any other fighter that got poked in the eye but then he started to act like a moron and he lost it.

 

[Eater of Souls]

I have had eye surgery so yes. It may seem cool at first adopting the pirate motif but an eyepatch can seriously fuck you up when you are driving at first.

 

[PeterGriffin]

I don’t think this is about an eye poke. I think the eye poke is just the excuse.

Because I watched Tom Aspinall build his entire identity around being the smartest heavyweight in the room. The modern one. The evolved one. The thinking fighter who saw things others didn’t. And I watched that same guy spend more time calling out Jon Jones than acknowledging the men actually standing across from him. Legacy talk. Unfinished business talk. Measuring himself against a standard he hadn’t earned proximity to yet.

So then the moment comes. The moment where things don’t go according to script. And suddenly it’s not about evolution anymore. It’s not about answers. It’s about circumstances.

I’ve heard all the justifications before. Nobody did anything wrong. Cyril Gane didn’t commit a sin. The referee didn’t conspire. The universe didn’t single him out. And somehow, in all of this, the only person who’s not allowed to be examined is the man who keeps telling us how complete he is.

I watched him rise. I watched him get the belt. I watched people tell me this was the future. And when that future got interrupted, everyone rushed in to explain why this time the standard shouldn’t apply. Why adversity should be treated as an external injustice instead of part of the job description. You don’t get to have it both ways. You don’t get to spend years presenting yourself as the inevitable answer while quietly lowering the bar the moment reality pushes back.

And here’s the part people don’t want to hear: the fixation on Jones is what makes this sting. Because Jones absorbed chaos, controversy, fouls, bad nights, bad optics, and kept winning. He didn’t get moral exemptions. He didn’t get pauses. He didn’t get the benefit of “understandable circumstances.” He got judged by outcomes.

So when Aspinall talks like he’s already that guy, and then reality intervenes, people notice the gap. Not because they hate him. Not because they’re cruel. But because greatness doesn’t get graded on intent.

You can sympathize with the situation if you want. That’s human. But don’t confuse sympathy with absolution. Because the belt doesn’t care, the division doesn’t care, and history definitely doesn’t care.

That’s not blaming the victim. That’s holding the claimant to the standard he volunteered for.

We get it, you think he quit.

But your essay, and I'm not even sure it was written by you, comes off with you holding Tom to be some kind of saintly fighter. That's your mistake. Gane fucked up, it was Gane's eye-poke... a foul... that caused the end of the fight. Not Tom and your revisionist history doesn't change anything.

Write a book on how Jon was even more noble and trustworthy as a fucking person Jon is, you're looking for a reason to chat about him anyways, so.... whatever helps you sleep at night.

A Jones fan complaining about a victim of an eye-poke being the guilty party. Fuck off dude. No one's buying your shit.

 

[oski]

Sorry I thought i heard it was double eye surgery. No big deal. Take a chill pill and relax.

Why chill, bro?

I'm trying to help you people understand what happened so y'all don't have to keep coming on here embarrassing yourselves.

Change the OP to reflect truth and then you chill.

I swear Tommy's little fanboys who keep coming on here making up shit that they are clueless about hurts his case even more.

Listening to you people describe it, it's like a damn South Park episode at this point...

Again now, he got popped in the face with a stiff jab and then tapped to a broken orbital. This perfectly explains why he was holding that dirty rag over 'the wrong eye,' and not the 'knuckle-deep one.'

Gane should have one by TKO. All the rest is internet whining by fanboys who still don't realize what actually happened.

 

[HatKick]

I don’t think this is about an eye poke. I think the eye poke is just the excuse.

Because I watched Tom Aspinall build his entire identity around being the smartest heavyweight in the room. The modern one. The evolved one. The thinking fighter who saw things others didn’t. And I watched that same guy spend more time calling out Jon Jones than acknowledging the men actually standing across from him. Legacy talk. Unfinished business talk. Measuring himself against a standard he hadn’t earned proximity to yet.

So then the moment comes. The moment where things don’t go according to script. And suddenly it’s not about evolution anymore. It’s not about answers. It’s about circumstances.

I’ve heard all the justifications before. Nobody did anything wrong. Cyril Gane didn’t commit a sin. The referee didn’t conspire. The universe didn’t single him out. And somehow, in all of this, the only person who’s not allowed to be examined is the man who keeps telling us how complete he is.

I watched him rise. I watched him get the belt. I watched people tell me this was the future. And when that future got interrupted, everyone rushed in to explain why this time the standard shouldn’t apply. Why adversity should be treated as an external injustice instead of part of the job description. You don’t get to have it both ways. You don’t get to spend years presenting yourself as the inevitable answer while quietly lowering the bar the moment reality pushes back.

And here’s the part people don’t want to hear: the fixation on Jones is what makes this sting. Because Jones absorbed chaos, controversy, fouls, bad nights, bad optics, and kept winning. He didn’t get moral exemptions. He didn’t get pauses. He didn’t get the benefit of “understandable circumstances.” He got judged by outcomes.

So when Aspinall talks like he’s already that guy, and then reality intervenes, people notice the gap. Not because they hate him. Not because they’re cruel. But because greatness doesn’t get graded on intent.

You can sympathize with the situation if you want. That’s human. But don’t confuse sympathy with absolution. Because the belt doesn’t care, the division doesn’t care, and history definitely doesn’t care.

That’s not blaming the victim. That’s holding the claimant to the standard he volunteered for.

You're saying Tom screwed himself because he wasn't prepared to defend against eyepokes at all times? You can't possibly be serious.

I guess Glover, Rampage, Gus, and DC were responsible for being eyepoked by Jones too. Buncha cans...

 

[RockyLockridge]

Gane's the worst thing that happened to HW recently if you think about it. First he loses to Jones way to easily allowing him to hoard the belt for a few years and then he comes back and takes out the champ indefinitely with flagrant fouls

Hes actually the best thing to happen to HW recently if you think about it. He has the best potential match ups with rico or periera of any HW. Once tom is out of the picture the division will be moving nicely again

 

[Takes Two To Tango]

Why chill, bro?

I'm trying to help you people understand what happened so y'all don't have to keep coming on here embarrassing yourselves.

Change the OP to reflect truth and then you chill.

I swear Tommy's little fanboys who keep coming on here making up shit that they are clueless about hurts his case even more.

Listening to you people describe it, it's like a damn South Park episode at this point...

Again now, he got popped in the face with a stiff jab and then tapped to a broken orbital. This perfectly explains why he was holding that dirty rag over 'the wrong eye,' and not the 'knuckle-deep one.'

Gane should have one by TKO. All the rest is internet whining by fanboys who still don't realize what actually happened.

I'm not a fanboy of Aspinall, in fact it doesn't matter to me if he ever comes back to fight or retires. I'm just pointing out if people are sympathetic towards him that's main point of it all.

I changed it to just eye surgery, that should suffice.

To me I just want to see great fights happen this year, especially now in Paramount +. Regardless who's fighting.

But anyways you are obviously hater of Tom, so be it. Enjoy the fights.

 

[orca]

i feel sorry for him
but hes soft
hes like 1 in a thousand who got eyepoked who cried in the internet nonstop

 

[haj02]

You're saying Tom screwed himself because he wasn't prepared to defend against eyepokes at all times? You can't possibly be serious.

I guess Glover, Rampage, Gus, and DC were responsible for being eyepoked by Jones too. Buncha cans...

Well the big difference with Tom and those guys is that none of them quit, they got their asses beat like men.

 

[Intermission]

I feel bad for Gane who was winning

 

[Thy]

Hell yeah... He might never see again.

would be hilarious if he actually loses an eye in the rematch and then goes on to do podcasts with bisping. they can call the show an eye for an eye and with their combines eyeballs they can see things.

 

[Thy]

not really cause i dunno him. i struggle to care about anyone i don't know irl. But i think the fight shoulda been a dq and gane shoulda been fined 20% atleast of his earnings. i'm more disappointed in mma than i am sympathetic for tom.

 

[HatKick]

Well the big difference with Tom and those guys is that none of them quit, they got their asses beat like men.

Well then why didn't you just say fighters should keep fighting whether they can see or not, instead of going on about that eyepoke self defense nonsense?

 

[Tweak896]

I sympathize with Tom tons, the sport is merciless, look what happened to Bisping. Sometimes the eye pokes are worse than they look or damaged more than people know.

That said, the HW title hasn't seen a real fight since Jones vs Gane, that's March 2023. Every time the UFC finds a new HW champ to "fix the division", we end up waiting forever. I'm not going to play favorites, just want to see the division go. Hope he vacates if we're talking 2nd half of 2026, just like they did at LHW but he fights for title on return.

I'm really sick of the Tom hype train where it's all framed in a positive light for him. I think lots of the Gane hate are just huge fans of Tom, who thinks he purposefully gouged eyes every fight. Just very weird, we see fouls in every card, but some reason people latched to Tom's like it's the worst and most blatant ever. Truth is it's 2026 and the guy might be champ for a year without ever having a real championship fight, might be time to vacate and when he's ready to return fight the winner.

 

[Captain Herb]

Hes actually the best thing to happen to HW recently if you think about it. He has the best potential match ups with rico or periera of any HW. Once tom is out of the picture the division will be moving nicely again

Na, Jones should have fought Tom years ago, this should all be in the rearview mirror and we should be substantially ahead of where we are. Taking Tom out of action might be good for Gane and other hopefuls but it's actually really bad, not to mention very unfair that he should benefit from his illegal actions. If it was up to me, Gane would have a DQ loss and a year suspension. That kind of intentional foul is about the worst thing you can do in the sport and there's absolutely no punishment for it, in fact he gets rewarded instead.

 

[SuperNerd]

Ye, but not because people are posting mean things.

Nobody gives a fuck, type away.

Moreso that this is the most interesting heavyweight, who has performed well consistently, has been iced by the ufc in his prime, sitting, waiting for Jon to finish wasting our time, and eating the shit end of that stick. His opportunities and chances at great success were maimed

The whole eye poke is just a cherry on the shit sundae this guy has been eating for months.

It so funny watching posters pretend to stick up for fighters in hypothetical situations but when it comes down to it, we all just want to UFC to be good. We dont really care about these dudes- until were pandering for likes. Most of these posters root for failure, not success.

 

[froggyluv]

Guess those Kung Fu guys werent lying all this time as to why they cant compete in MMA's limited rulesets -because they're moves are too lethal for the average MMA'st. Imagine what 1 Karate Man could do in a rooom full of MMA fighters unchecked !! The brutality is mind boggling.

Eye pokes ruin Families !!