"It’s about money" - Tom Aspinall’s father accuses UFC of putting profit over fairness in eye poke fallout

Tom Aspinall’s father Andy recently took aim at the UFC for failing to take significant precautions to prevent eye pokes inside the octagon.

Aspinall’s first defense of his undisputed heavyweight belt against Ciryl Gane on Saturday in the main event of UFC 321 ended in an unfortunate way. The Brit was poked in the eyes, which left him unable to continue. Following an intensive check-up, the fight was declared a no-contest.

In a recent YouTube video, Andy chastised the promotion for not being concerned about eye pokes in the sport:

''So if a guy's defending like that, he should be taught not to defend like that. Every time his hand comes out, it does this. And it's wrong. It's just my opinion. I don't run the sport, but the sport, when is it gonna change it? It's probably never gonna change it... it's an issue if the UFC want it to be an issue. There's nothing we can do about it... If they want to do something about it, they should. If they care about people, they should. And it's back to everybody has opinions.''

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He continued:

''Everybody needs money as well. I don’t have to say what I say or do what I do to report back to shareholders to make money for a company. I do this because it's a sport... The other people who doing it, are doing it to report back to shareholders at the highest level because it's part of a company and then they're doing it, most of the people online are doing it, the analysts, the ex-fighters, the YouTube makers are doing it because they make a video and that video makes them money, so it's about money and they're entitled to their opinion but I don't read it and I don't care about it.''

Check out Andy Aspinall's comments below:

Dana White talks about potential rematch between Tom Aspinall and Ciryl Gane

In the UFC 321 post-event press conference, Dana White voiced his disappointment with the fight result and hinted at a rematch between Tom Aspinall and Ciryl Gane:

''Total pain in the a*s but yes [we’ll book the rematch]. They’re both in shape, other than whatever’s wrong with his eye. Both guys are not injured. As soon as possible... I think that there probably will be a lot more interest in the rematch after they saw he had Tom bloodied up. Tom didn’t want to continue in the fight. The rematch is very interesting.'' [31:42 of the interview]