"He just needs to not care" - Belal Muhammad defends Tom Aspinall amid backlash, says trolls are feeding off the hate

Belal Muhammad (left) shares some advice for Tom Aspinall (right) in light of his UFC 321 eye poke incident. [Images courtesy: Getty Images]
Belal Muhammad (left) shares some advice for Tom Aspinall (right) in light of his UFC 321 eye poke incident. [Images courtesy: Getty Images]

Belal Muhammad recently shared his thoughts on Tom Aspinall catching heat from MMA fans after his title fight against Ciryl Gane ended abruptly due to a nasty eye poke incident. The former UFC welterweight champion pointed out that Aspinall needs to stop addressing the matter to prevent online trolls from feeding off it.

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For context, Aspinall and Gane threw down in a highly anticipated heavyweight title fight at UFC 321 last weekend. While many expected fireworks, the fight ended with a no-contest result after Gane accidentally poked Aspinall in the eyes in the opening round.

In the aftermath, many criticized Aspinall for allegedly quitting the fight and chastised him for not pushing through the pain. In a recent X post, documentary filmmaker Will Harris expressed dismay at the MMA community for turning on Aspinall:

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"Damn the fan base really turning on Tom and that’s the BS."

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Taking to the post's comments section, Muhammad shared his two cents on the matter and advised Aspinall to stop caring about online opinions:

"He just needs to not care. He’s trying to hard to explain himself because he hates being booed, but the trolls feed off that."
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Dustin Poirier talks about Tom Aspinall's eye poke incident at UFC 321

Dustin Poirier recently shared his thoughts on the Tom Aspinall vs. Ciryl Gane fight at UFC 321 and addressed the eye poke incident that ended their clash abruptly. The Louisiana native admitted that only Aspinall knew the extent of his injuries.

In a video shared to his socials (via @ChampRDS on X), Poirier also recalled pushing through the pain when he went through a similar situation:

"A lot of people are asking me, 'What's up with Aspinall? What's up with the eye poke?' 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."

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Edited by Nishant Zende.
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