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First of all, I understand that injuries are a real part of the sport. I'm not here to discuss the validity of Aspinall's eye injuries.
I'm here to give my take on why Aspinall has lost some credibility, and also why fans are turning on him.
Fans wanted Aspinall VS Jones. People actually picked Aspinall against Jones in polls. Aspinall had a LOT of backers.
Being the UFC HW Champion means you're the baddest man on the roster regardless of weight-classes.
Obviously negotiations fell through and we didn't end up getting Aspinall VS Jones. Feels like we waited a while for it too. Had our hopes up and down.
Then, we had to settle for Aspinall VS Gane. Gane seems to be the master of showing up in HW Championship fights regardless of his poor performances.
We watched Jones make easy work of Gane... we watched Ngannou beat Gane with busted knees... and most people felt that Volkov beat Gane too.
So here Gane is, fighting the guy who we slated as the MAN to beat Jon Jones... and Gane was bloodying Aspinall up.
Now, we all know that a few minutes of 1 round doesn't determine a fight. Arlovski was getting the better of Fedor for a few minutes before going to sleep.
Hell, winning 2-3 minutes of a round doesn't even guarantee you the round, let alone the fight. You gotta win 5 minutes to win 1 round.
We got 4 minutes 30 seconds in... Gane was definitely winning but it wasn't the end of the round yet, and Aspinall ends up getting double eye-poked.
Even if Aspinall was to continue, with how bad the poke was - Gane was going to be deducted a point... which means the first round would have ended up in a draw.
But of course, Gane was getting the better of Aspinall.
The circumstances made it seem like Aspinall was looking for an out in the fight. Now, no one but Tom will know how bad it was after getting poked... and while I'm not a doctor, I have seen many fighters continue after getting poked in the eye in the same manner. Hell, I believe DC and Stipe did it to each other every fight, hah.
It didn't help that fans had been anticipating Aspinall's fight for a while. But now we had to watch him get bloodied up by a gatekeeper, and now he's not continuing in a fight due to eye poke.
So of course fans are a bit upset. Hell, If I paid thousands of dollars to to attend this fight, and I know people flew in to Abu Dhabi to watch this- man, you have every right to be pissed that the HW Championship fight ended in this manner.
But of course, we can't fault Aspinall... we can hate him for choosing not to continue with double vision against a kickboxer who was bloodying him up even when he had 2 working eyes... but ultimately it is al on Gane for the illegal blow. It didn't look very accidental either. Dude had fingers going into Tom's face. And it seemed like Gane was doing it more than once.
However, I think fans didn't expect the fight to get that far. I think we expected to see Tom bulldoze Gane the way Jones did. And when that didn't happen, we lost a bit of faith.
I mean, we picked THIS guy to beat Jones???
And since the fight, Tom and his dad hasn't really been doing themselves any favors with how they have approached the whole thing.
Again, I'm no doctor - but it doesn't seem like there's any evident damage to the eyes as far as a layman like me can understand. I know they gave some special name to what Aspinall is suffering from... and it may make sense to doctors, but it doesn't make sense to laymen like us.
Like, the Aspinalls posted the doctor's report and there doesn't seem to be something that requires immediate surgery.
But Tom and his Dad make it a point to talk about how Tom can't see yet.
Every news we get, is Tom Aspinall still can't see- and there's no timetable for his return. Now ESPN retorted that Aspniall needs surgery after all?
Apparently Tom said he already got 1 surgery, but there's no pics or anything? I'm not sure what the case is. Maybe Tom is set to get surgery.
I wish Tom the best in recovery, but the whole thing has been a mess.
No one should risk being blind. But man, it doesn't help that guys like Bisping fought with 1 eye. Bro lied to pass the medicals and even beat Rockhold on 2 week's notice when Rockhold was top3 P4P on the planet.
GSP was on a 33 round winning streak when Shields poked him and blinded him in 1 eye. GSP kept composed and won the fight 48-47... at the end he talked about how he still can't see from 1 eye. You can see GSP was scared but he kept composed enough to win the fight.
So, we have seen other Champions go through adversity and fight with 1 eye in championship fights.
Shara Bullet fights all his fights with 1 eye. He can't even get cleared in the US.
So, as far Just Bleed goes... I don't think the fans expected anything from Aspinall that we haven't seen from anyone else.
On Top of that, man... why's the BadAss HW Champion of the world so fragile- that's a thought that runs in my head too. Like man it's January now and Tom and his dad are still on about this eye injury. It's been over 2 months, let's move on. I know eye injuries are much more complicated than muscle injuries... but I don't think this does Aspinall any favors as far 'image' goes.
The HW Champion should come off as Unbeatable, as someone who would beat any man in a street fight.
Think Prime Tyson.
Think Prime Fedor.
Dudes were invincible.
Tom Aspinall seemed to have had that AURA taken away from him. And I think that's why fans have turned on Tom Aspinall.
Tl, Dr - I think fans expected Tom to muscle through the eye injury since we slated him as the MAN to beat Jon Jones. Or at the least, we expect him to get over the eye injury by now and get back to the cage to prove himself.
I'm here to give my take on why Aspinall has lost some credibility, and also why fans are turning on him.
Fans wanted Aspinall VS Jones. People actually picked Aspinall against Jones in polls. Aspinall had a LOT of backers.
Being the UFC HW Champion means you're the baddest man on the roster regardless of weight-classes.
Obviously negotiations fell through and we didn't end up getting Aspinall VS Jones. Feels like we waited a while for it too. Had our hopes up and down.
Then, we had to settle for Aspinall VS Gane. Gane seems to be the master of showing up in HW Championship fights regardless of his poor performances.
We watched Jones make easy work of Gane... we watched Ngannou beat Gane with busted knees... and most people felt that Volkov beat Gane too.
So here Gane is, fighting the guy who we slated as the MAN to beat Jon Jones... and Gane was bloodying Aspinall up.
Now, we all know that a few minutes of 1 round doesn't determine a fight. Arlovski was getting the better of Fedor for a few minutes before going to sleep.
Hell, winning 2-3 minutes of a round doesn't even guarantee you the round, let alone the fight. You gotta win 5 minutes to win 1 round.
We got 4 minutes 30 seconds in... Gane was definitely winning but it wasn't the end of the round yet, and Aspinall ends up getting double eye-poked.
Even if Aspinall was to continue, with how bad the poke was - Gane was going to be deducted a point... which means the first round would have ended up in a draw.
But of course, Gane was getting the better of Aspinall.
The circumstances made it seem like Aspinall was looking for an out in the fight. Now, no one but Tom will know how bad it was after getting poked... and while I'm not a doctor, I have seen many fighters continue after getting poked in the eye in the same manner. Hell, I believe DC and Stipe did it to each other every fight, hah.
It didn't help that fans had been anticipating Aspinall's fight for a while. But now we had to watch him get bloodied up by a gatekeeper, and now he's not continuing in a fight due to eye poke.
So of course fans are a bit upset. Hell, If I paid thousands of dollars to to attend this fight, and I know people flew in to Abu Dhabi to watch this- man, you have every right to be pissed that the HW Championship fight ended in this manner.
But of course, we can't fault Aspinall... we can hate him for choosing not to continue with double vision against a kickboxer who was bloodying him up even when he had 2 working eyes... but ultimately it is al on Gane for the illegal blow. It didn't look very accidental either. Dude had fingers going into Tom's face. And it seemed like Gane was doing it more than once.
However, I think fans didn't expect the fight to get that far. I think we expected to see Tom bulldoze Gane the way Jones did. And when that didn't happen, we lost a bit of faith.
I mean, we picked THIS guy to beat Jones???
And since the fight, Tom and his dad hasn't really been doing themselves any favors with how they have approached the whole thing.
Again, I'm no doctor - but it doesn't seem like there's any evident damage to the eyes as far as a layman like me can understand. I know they gave some special name to what Aspinall is suffering from... and it may make sense to doctors, but it doesn't make sense to laymen like us.
Like, the Aspinalls posted the doctor's report and there doesn't seem to be something that requires immediate surgery.
But Tom and his Dad make it a point to talk about how Tom can't see yet.
Every news we get, is Tom Aspinall still can't see- and there's no timetable for his return. Now ESPN retorted that Aspniall needs surgery after all?
Apparently Tom said he already got 1 surgery, but there's no pics or anything? I'm not sure what the case is. Maybe Tom is set to get surgery.
I wish Tom the best in recovery, but the whole thing has been a mess.
No one should risk being blind. But man, it doesn't help that guys like Bisping fought with 1 eye. Bro lied to pass the medicals and even beat Rockhold on 2 week's notice when Rockhold was top3 P4P on the planet.
GSP was on a 33 round winning streak when Shields poked him and blinded him in 1 eye. GSP kept composed and won the fight 48-47... at the end he talked about how he still can't see from 1 eye. You can see GSP was scared but he kept composed enough to win the fight.
So, we have seen other Champions go through adversity and fight with 1 eye in championship fights.
Shara Bullet fights all his fights with 1 eye. He can't even get cleared in the US.
So, as far Just Bleed goes... I don't think the fans expected anything from Aspinall that we haven't seen from anyone else.
On Top of that, man... why's the BadAss HW Champion of the world so fragile- that's a thought that runs in my head too. Like man it's January now and Tom and his dad are still on about this eye injury. It's been over 2 months, let's move on. I know eye injuries are much more complicated than muscle injuries... but I don't think this does Aspinall any favors as far 'image' goes.
The HW Champion should come off as Unbeatable, as someone who would beat any man in a street fight.
Think Prime Tyson.
Think Prime Fedor.
Dudes were invincible.
Tom Aspinall seemed to have had that AURA taken away from him. And I think that's why fans have turned on Tom Aspinall.
Tl, Dr - I think fans expected Tom to muscle through the eye injury since we slated him as the MAN to beat Jon Jones. Or at the least, we expect him to get over the eye injury by now and get back to the cage to prove himself.
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