Ciryl Gane’s coach Fernand Lopez addresses UFC 321 aftermath: “If he can’t see, he can’t see”

Ciryl Gane's coach, Fernand Lopez, recently shared his take on the Tom Aspinall eye poke incident at UFC 321 last weekend. The veteran coach claimed that everything was "going as planned" for them.

Aspinall and Gane went up against each other in a highly anticipated heavyweight title fight at UFC 321. In the opening round, Aspinall was brutally poked in the eyes by Gane and was unable to continue fighting. The referee ultimately declared the fight a no-contest, with Aspinall retaining the heavyweight title.

In an interview with Daniel Cormier immediately after the UFC 321 event, Lopez addressed the incident and said:

"Ciryl looked good there. For us, everything was going as planned. Absolutely planned. Unfortunately, if he can't see, he can't see. There's nothing we can do about it. So disappointed."

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Catch Fernand Lopez's comments below (12:58):

Chael Sonnen takes shots at Ciryl Gane following the Tom Aspinall eye poke incident at UFC 321

Chael Sonnen recently went off on Ciryl Gane and urged Tom Aspinall to reject the idea of a rematch between the two. Sonnen slammed Gane for having "cheated multiple times" in the past and pointed out that the Frenchman poked Aspinall in both his eyes.

In a YouTube video, Sonnen reacted to the Aspinall-Gane eye poke incident and expressed dismay at the situation:

“And that’s the thing that we left without. I mean, if I’m in Tom’s shoes, everything is possible right now, including denying the rematch. So, [Gane's] a cheater. He cheated multiple times. I wanted to fight him. I wanted to give him an opportunity. I’ve done all of those things. I’m moving on. I don’t fight guys who are cheaters."

He continued:

"It wasn’t an eye poke. It was a double eye poke. It wasn’t one finger went knuckle deep. Two fingers. Slow it down. Both of them go knuckle deep. And in that regard, I don’t love the idea of unintentional. I do believe that’s the rule, and I believe the rule was properly followed. I’m not giving Jason Herzog a hard time, but I’m opening the door to it, particularly for the future. We’ve got two constants as far as the rules go from 1993 till now. Don’t bite the guy. Don’t poke the son of a bi*ch in his eyes. Those are the two rules. So when one of them is violated, it’s very frustrating when somebody can go out and grab the fabric, grab the shorts, and a warning happens."