"I think he should’ve handled this situation differently" - Aljamain Sterling stands by his take on Tom Aspinall’s controversial eye poke

Aljamain Sterling recently doubled down on his take regarding Tom Aspinall's eye poke incident at UFC 321 last weekend. Sterling maintains that Aspinall shouldn't have claimed he couldn't see at all immediately after getting eye poked and that he isn't questioning the Englishman's integrity.

Aspinall went up against Ciryl Gane in a heavyweight title fight at UFC 321 last weekend. Gane accidentally poked Aspinall's eyes in the opening round, which left the Englishman unable to continue fighting. In the aftermath, Sterling opined that Aspinall shouldn't have told the referee that he couldn't see at all before the five-minute window was up and questioned the severity of the eye poke.

Given the visuals of the Aspinall-Gane eye poke incident, many fans slammed Sterling for his comments on social media. The former bantamweight champion recently responded to his critics in a video shared to his socials and said:

"I made some comments on the Aspinall fight and how he handled the situation of the foul, and I think my opinion still stands. The fact still remains, When Tommy got poked in the eye, the first thing he said was, 'I cannot see.' We all know that when you are fouled, you cannot say those words; otherwise, the referee is inclined to stop the fight. That's just the way the rules are made. Don't be mad at me. With that said, I think he should've handled the situation differently."

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He continued:

"I don't know how badly hurt he was. I never questioned Tommy's integrity."

Brendan Schaub slams the narrative that Tom Aspinall quit too early at UFC 321

Brendan Schaub recently shared his thoughts on the Tom Aspinall and Ciryl Gane fight at UFC 321 and backed the Englishman's decision not to continue fighting after getting poked in the eye.

During the latest episode of The Schaub Show, 'Big Brown' said:

“The whole narrative on oh Tom wanted out, he was losing the fight, he found a way out... Shut the f*ck up. It’s such a casual take... You’re talking about the guy that fought Sergei Pavlovich, this scary Russian dude, and starched him in his hometown. You’re telling me... that guy was looking for a way out?... Anyone who’s saying that is not made of the same DNA as Tom Aspinall.” [23:30 of the podcast]