Tom Aspinall has picked up some advice from a fighter who knows a thing or two about what he’s going through.
Due to needing two eye surgeries, Aspinall doesn’t have a return date set, leaving fans waiting for his comeback. However, he seems determined to come back strong.
The UFC heavyweight champion’s first title defense took a bad turn when Ciryl Gane caught him with pokes to both eyes.
While getting healthy is his top priority right now, Aspinall isn’t hiding his interest in running it back with Gane. It’s something that could fire up the division once he’s ready to go again.
Michael Bisping warns Tom Aspinall about the impact of coming back too soon
Bisping has been open about his concerns regarding how eye pokes are dealt with in the UFC, especially in light of Aspinall’s recent injuries.
It’s a topic he knows well. Bisping went through similar issues during his own career and has plenty of firsthand experience with the dangers involved.
Following his defeat to Vitor Belfort in 2013, Bisping managed to keep fighting despite being legally blind in his right eye, something he kept quiet from officials.
“My retina was reattached after it was detached against Vitor Belfort, and then it re-detached, and then they fixed it again, and then I got glaucoma,” Bisping recalled on YouTube. “Once you start messing around with the eyes, in fact just like any part of your body, once you start going in and messing around with it, it’s never the same again.”
Even so, ‘The Count’ continued to compete at a high level and eventually captured a UFC title. Looking back though, he admits he didn’t give himself enough time to recover properly.
Bisping also mentioned that while those around him were supportive during his recovery process following UFC 321, he felt compelled to return before he was truly ready.
“The one thing you can’t do with an eye is rush back. That is the one big lesson that I learned because I did that. I rushed back too soon. I rushed back to sparring; I rushed back to competition and I never saw out of that eye again.”
Joe Rogan worried that Tom Aspinall may not return to the Octagon
Michael Bisping’s recent comments about Tom Aspinall’s injuries came shortly after Joe Rogan discussed the issue on his podcast.
During episode 172 of the JRE MMA Show, Rogan pointed out that Aspinall’s future in the sport could depend heavily on how his surgeries go.
“I mean, that’s a disaster. Tom Aspinall still can’t see,” Rogan said. “He’s got a f—– up right eyeball still. The reality is he might not ever fight again. Like, who knows? If he has surgery on his eye, and it doesn’t go well and he can’t see out of the eye, apparently he’s still f—– up in his right eye. There’s some tendon damage or something.”
He went on to highlight Bisping as a rare exception when it comes to fighters recovering from serious eye injuries.
“Eyes are so tricky, you never know. Unless you’re a f—— complete psychopath like Michael Bisping, who fought 11 fights in the UFC blind in one eye, which is so crazy that he did that.”
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