Tom Aspinall leans on Jon Jones quote to argue Ciryl Gane’s eye poke was intentional

In a recent video on his YouTube channel, Aspinall addressed several questions from fans about UFC 321 and his recovery.

Following his answers to Dana White’s comments about the incident, he turned his focus to Gane.

When asked whether he thought the eye poke was intentional, Aspinall said he believes the Frenchman often tries to bend the rules in order to get an edge.

“When I watched the fight back, that’s when I really got the gist of what’s going on,” he began by saying.

“The guy was trying to f—- poke my eyes out all the way through that round. Multiple exchanges. Nearly every exchange that I could put him in danger, he had his fingers out pointing towards my eyes.

“The guy was cheating from the first second, and the way that he wanted to win that fight was (to) have me compromised by cheating.

“Even Jon Jones himself, even the GOAT himself said before he fought him that Gane is a cheater and uses dirty tactics,” the Briton said.

Following the inclusion of footage detailing Gane’s fouls in previous bouts, the document featured a clip of Jon Jones’ post-fight press conference from 2023, after his submission victory over ‘Bon Gamin’.

“I’ve noticed in a lot of Ciryl Gane’s fights, he hits people in the back of the head quite a bit. I didn’t want any type of dirty play happening on such a big night,” the Rochester native said at that time.

Jon Jones has not let up on Tom Aspinall since UFC 321

Even though Jones seems to recognise Gane’s tendency for fouls, that has not stopped him from having a bit of fun at Aspinall’s expense.

During his reign, ‘Bones’ was criticised by Aspinall, fellow fighters, and fans alike for not agreeing to unify the division’s two titles.

In that context, Jones was left with a negative impression of the Englishman and was quick to criticise him after the conclusion of the UFC 321 main event.

After responding to claims he was ‘ducking’ Aspinall by changing his social media profile photos to a duck, ‘Bones’ later added an eye patch to the image as a nod to the eye poke incident.

Not long after that, he showed up at the Dirty Boxing 4 weigh-ins riding a horse – also sporting an eye patch – in another jab at the Briton.