After 2 Gruelling Eye Surgeries, Tom Aspinall Hints At UFC Return

The surgeries were not just injury management. Aspinall admitted the vision problems had been affecting his performance for longer than people knew, which reframes the Ciryl Gane withdrawal at UFC 321 in a very different light. 

He was not being soft. He was fighting through something that required two separate procedures to correct, and he still showed up until the eye poke made continuing genuinely dangerous.

That landscape has shifted considerably while he was gone. Alex Pereira vacated the light heavyweight title and made his ambitions toward a third belt increasingly obvious. 

Ex-UFC Champ Alex Pereira Rejects Tom Aspinall Injury Conspiracy After UFC 321 Fallout

The backlash Aspinall received after the Gane stoppage was understandable, even if it was ultimately unfair. However, Pereira, who has stood across from some of the most dangerous fighters on the planet without blinking, said the image of Aspinall’s bloodshot eyes after the procedure genuinely scared him. Coming from Pereira, that is not a throwaway comment.

He said, “Look I don’t mess around with health man. I see this guy is a fighter he is not gonna fake something like that. But the guy’s back. And now after surgery I saw the photo that he posted. Man his eyes was all red it even scare me a bit.”

Meanwhile, Aspinall returning healthy, with surgically corrected vision, against a Pereira hunting his third divisional title would be one of the biggest heavyweight matchups in recent memory.