Michael Bisping weighs in on brutal eye poke that ended Tom Aspinall’s night prematurely

Fans were eager to hear from Bisping following UFC 321. Beyond his close ties to Aspinall, the 46-year-old has his own history with eye injuries and was clearly frustrated by the lack of change around eye pokes in the sport.

Bisping went on to say on UFC on TNT Sports post-show: “Of course it was a disaster. It was an absolute fiasco, they’ve got to do something about these eye pokes. The rule is you’ve got to have your hands [up], but you can’t have your fingers out straight [across].

“That’s the stupidest rule that I’ve seen in my life. Make a fist, simple as that. You’re throwing punches and, yes, you’ve got to parry shots. But you just need to un-bend your fingers, it’s really not that hard. This is a stupid rule, your fist should be closed, not kind of closed.”

Fans let down as Tom Aspinall vs Ciryl Gane fight cut short by early stoppage

Bisping also pointed out that fans were left disappointed, not just because of the ending, but because it was shaping up to be a strong heavyweight title bout.

While Aspinall had already taken some damage to his nose, both fighters were still standing and exchanging strikes, with Gane managing to keep the action off the mat.

“The main thing is that his vision is going to be okay, we hope. It could just be a bit of temporary vision loss, maybe it’s a scratched cornea or something like that, it remains to be seen. What makes it extra frustrating for everyone involved is it was shaping up to be a tremendous fight.

“That fight was brilliant, they went at each other toe-to-toe, Ciryl Gane was standing his ground and he wasn’t dancing around or avoiding the fight and making it boring. He was happy to stand there and trade, he defended the takedowns as well; it was really looking like a tremendous fight.”