Dustin Poirier calls Tom Aspinall eye poke fiasco into question as he compares past issues

Dustin Poirier admits he continued after several eye pokes

Taking on the who’s who of the lightweight roster during his pomp, Poirier failed to emerge unscathed — particularly with notable fouls against two fellow ex-champions.

Firstly, the Lafayette star was twice poked by Justin Gaethje in their first fight, before an inadvertent finger extension from Khabib Nurmagomedov halted their unification clash in 2019.

And noting his past experiences, Poirier claimed that while Aspinall himself only knows how severe the indiscretion actually was, he has dealt with and fought through similar fouls in the past.

“A lot of people have been asking me what’s up with (Tom) Aspinall, what’s up with the eye poke,” Poirier said on social media. “I don’t know — only he knows how bad it was.

“But I’ve been in a lot of fights where I’ve got eye poked and I continued,” Poirier explained. “And only he knows [how bad it was].”

Tom Aspinall lined up for Ciryl Gane rematch

Whether you believe a rematch between Aspinall and Gane is even needed off the back of the lacklustre UFC 321 event, the powers that be already have the ball in motion, it seems.

In the immediate aftermath of the promotion’s return to Abu Dhabi, long-time organizational boss Dana White confirmed plans to get the duo in the cage together again in a bid to finally settle the issue.