Heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall’s first title defense as the undisputed titleholder didn’t go as planned.
The British bomber entered the octagon in Abu Dhabi on Oct. 25 brimming with confidence with former interim titleholder Ciryl Gane standing across from him. The fight, for as long as it lasted, was competitive. Gane appeared to have found his range early and saw success with his jab.
The fight came to an abrupt end late in the opening round after Gane poked Aspinall in both eyes rendering him unable to continue. The bout was ruled a no contest and Aspinall retained the belt. Before the eye pokes occurred, Aspinall believes the fight was playing out as planned.
“I felt like the fight was going okay. It was going pretty much to plan,” Aspinall said on his YouTube channel.
Heading into the fight, many thought Aspinall would make quick work of Gane like he had with so many previous opponents. Aspinall was not one of those that had that opinion.
“There was this big notion in the media before that I’m just going to run through Ciryl Gane. Look, I might look like an idiot. Sometimes I might even talk like an idiot, but when it comes to fighting, I know what I’m talking about. And I know Ciryl Gane is a tough matchup for me,” Aspinall said.
“If you want to break the fight down a little bit, Ciryl’s got really good defense. He moves really, really well on his feet. I knew that I had to stand in range and take a few punches from Ciryl to be able to land my own shots. We knew that. That was happening.”
Related: Tom Aspinall on Ciryl Gane: ‘I think he’s a big cheater’
The first round ended before its conclusion, so the judges did not score the round. The commentators thought Gane was winning the fight at the time of the fouls. Aspinall was bleeding from his nose and absorbing more shots than he typically does.
“I had a bloody nose. Look, any of my sparring partners know you only have to look at that thing (his nose)… touch me in the nose and it’ll bleed. Nose bleeds happen in fights,” Aspinall said.
“Was he hitting me with a few jabs? Yes. Was I hitting him with a few shots as well? Yes,” he continued. “I felt like the first half of the round, you know, he caught me a couple of times with a couple of jabs, couple of legs kicks, but towards the backend of the round I was putting him in a couple of dangerous spots.”