Tom Aspinall has issued an update on his fitness five weeks on from his UFC return, which ended in a controversial no-contest.
The Briton was defending the UFC heavyweight belt for the very first time since assuming the title from Jon Jones, who retired from the sport instead of fighting Aspinall in a title-unifying bout.
Aspinall was scheduled to face Ciryl Gane at UFC 321 in Abu Dhabi, but the main event was halted in the dying embers of the first round after Aspinall suffered a poke in his right eye from the Frenchman.
Aspinall was furious with the crowd’s reaction when a no-contest was declared, with boos and jeers directed towards the champion as he left the Octagon clutching his eye.
Now, taking to Instagram and YouTube, Aspinall has released medical records and answered questions about how he is feeling and when he could potentially return.
He posted the medical reports of his assessment - dated November 24, 2025 - which read: “Mr Aspinall sustained significant bilateral ocular trauma”, and he was diagnosed with “bilateral traumatic Brown’s syndrome, indicating significant disruption to the superior oblique tendon-trochlear complex”.
The assessment concluded that Aspinall was “not yet medically cleared for combat activity”, with symptoms remaining “unresolved as of late November”.
In a Q&A video published on his YouTube channel, Aspinall reflected on the incident, which happened back in October.
“When it initially happened, I didn’t think much of it,” Aspinall explained.
“I thought it was an accidental eye poke. When I watched it back, that’s when I really got the gist of what was going on. The guy was trying to poke my eyes out all the way through that round.
“Every exchange where I could put him in danger, he had his fingers out, pointing towards my eyes. The guy was cheating from the first second. The way that he wanted to win was to have me compromised by cheating.”
Aspinall gave an update on his current situation to accompany the medical records he had posted.
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“It’s not up to me,” the Briton said of a potential return to the Octagon.
“I’m not allowed to do anything. I’m following advice at the moment. What’s next is that there’s talk of surgery on the eyes. We’ll have to see in the next couple of weeks. That’s down to the specialists.
“I’m not in the gym or doing anything MMA-wise at the moment. I’m following the doctor's orders right now and seeing what happens with my health.
“I am obviously very keen to get back and beat this guy up, but I’ve got to be 100% right. Whenever the eye is good to go, that’s when I’ll do it.”
Aspinall’s frustrations were clearly still evident, as he labelled Gane “a big cheater”, before a montage played of alleged illegal strikes from the Frenchman in his previous bouts.
“He’s a big cheater,” Aspinall continued.
“Look at all his fights. Even Jon Jones himself, said before he fought him that Gane was a cheater and he used a lot of dirty tactics.
“I didn’t continue [our fight] because I’m not a dummy. I’m not going to go out there and fight one of the best strikers in the world if I can’t see. I know that things are going to happen in the fight to compromise you.
“If you get double eye-poked and I’ve got no vision because of a foul, why should I carry on, if some dummy can say, ‘Tom just got knocked out’. If it’s a foul, why would I put my health at risk?”
UFC president Dana White said after the incident that he was hoping to get a rematch arranged as soon as possible, but with Aspinall’s vision still not fully returned, that could be on the backburners for quite some time.
