Cyril Gane isn’t particularly thrilled with how his world title fight ended.
Gane was challenging Tom Aspinall for the UFC Heavyweight Championship and all seemed to be going well in the first round until Gane accidentally poked Tom Aspinall in the eye. The UFC Heavyweight Champion was right after that moment and the fight was called off because Aspinall was unable to compete.
Speaking at the post-fight conference, Gane felt that the first round was going well and that’s why he was disappointed with the outcome.
“I think I started very well,” Gane said in the post-fight press conference. “Because everybody knows his strategy every time; he starts hard and surprises his opponent. I think we did well, defending a takedown and touching him. We saw some blood on his nose. It was a really great first round, and that’s why I was a little bit disappointed, a little bit sad about this issue. But this is the sport.”
Despite fans claiming that the eye poke was on purpose, Gane ensures that it was a mistake.
“No, I didn’t feel anything specific,” Gane said when asked about the poke. “I didn’t do it on purpose. And I know what it is to have an eye poke. When I fought Derrick Lewis, I had an eye poke, and I was seeing two Derrick Lewis for [one] round. … So I’m not going to say, ‘Yeah, he’s a liar.’”
The good news is that Gane is likely getting a rematch against Aspinall. Dana White praised Gane’s performance by stating that he had a great showing.
“I feel the way everybody feels — great showing, shitty ending,” White told reporters. “After the Jon Jones fight, a lot of people wrote Ciryl Gane off, but he looked damn good tonight. It looked like we were in for a few rounds, and it was going to be a good fight… I can’t make people fight. You definitely can’t make somebody continue if they feel they’ve been injured. Only Tom knows what happened. Could he see? Couldn’t he see? Only he knows that.”
He without a doubt confirms that a rematch will happen as soon as possible.
“Yeah. Total pain in the ass, but yes,” White said. “What makes sense is to do the rematch. Anything can happen, but right here, right now — and being honest, which I never do when talking about fights — the rematch makes sense. They’re both in shape, other than whatever’s wrong with his eye. Both guys are not injured. [We’ll make it happen] as soon as possible.”