Did Tom Aspinall take the easy way out at UFC 321? That has been a topic of raging debates ever since the Abu Dhabi PPV’s main event came to an unceremonious end. The medical testimonies that followed, along with Dana White’s comments about Aspinall’s condition backstage, all pointed to concerning conclusions. However, fans have spotted cracks in the narrative that has been building up.

Tom Aspinall released a video of his post-fight medical treatment, and a couple of days later, his father posted a video on YouTube explaining the accident. However, fans were quick to call him out on social media over some inconsistencies in their claims.

Tom Aspinall’s father’s explanation about the eye poke does not match up

After the check-up in Abu Dhabi, Tom Aspinall arrived in England and underwent a series of further tests. According to his father, the eye test result indicated that things were “bad, it’s not good.” He asserted that the heavyweight champion had been rendered completely blind in his right eye, while his left eye was only barely better. This means Aspinall may need to sit on the sidelines for a while.

“[Doctors] said it’s bad, it’s not good. But his eye is a little bit more closed than it was. His right eye, he still can’t see anything. He said it’s just grey, and they tested him on words, and he just couldn’t see anything,” Andy Aspinall said on YouTube. “His left eye, 50% — he went down about four letters, and then he just couldn’t see the letters. So one’s really, really blurry and one’s still not working.”

Well, fans were quick to check what Andy Aspinall was saying was actually true. They had their doubts. Even though the champ’s father claimed he had no vision at all in his right eye, his first video after the fight showed him being able to answer correctly while the doctor was testing him with numbers in Abu Dhabi.

A X handle by the name ‘Left Hook MMA’ wrote, “If Tom still can’t see anything out of his right eye, how the hell did he know that was four fingers on fight day? I’m just asking questions.” Another handle named ‘SickydoesMMA’ shared a video clip from Tom Aspinall’s post-fight video, capturing the exact moment that he believes exposed the champion for pretending to be blind. “Bro was checking to see if he was still being recorded. Genuinely hilarious from Aspinall,” he wrote.

But this claim is not without its holes either. Aspinall’s father’s statement said that Tom’s eye was “a little bit more closed than it was.” The video the fans used was of the checkup right after the fight. Many other fans in the comments were defending Aspinall, citing that inflammation may have actually rendered him blind in the arena or gotten worse later.

One such fan comment from the user ‘@SEJ_000′ read, “Because injuries can get worse with time? Like a black eye the swelling isn’t there immediately. Then same with Cejudos eye poke. The swelling and redness didn’t start when it got called off, but days after.” Back at UFC Seattle earlier this year, Henry Cejudo lost a technical decision after an eye poke rendered him unable to compete. He later revealed he had a corneal abrasion and diplopia (double vision).

Eye pokes are a common occurrence, and there’s always a lot of subjectivity when it comes to a matter as delicate as this one. Some doctors have also made claims about the eye poke looking “superficial.” But instead of explanations, the community is calling for solutions to prevent instances of eye pokes, to which Joe Rogan has an idea.

Joe Rogan’s solution to the eye-poke problem

The only way, according to Joe Rogan, that the UFC can avoid eye pokes is if they change the design of the gloves. The promotion tried to do that last year, but it did no good because some fighters had issues with the way it fitted in their hands. When Jon Jones asked Dana White and Co. to revert to the old ones in his last fight, they obliged, which made their efforts to change the design go in vain. Nevertheless, Rogan is now strongly advising the CEO to make the changes, which involve covering the fingertips.

“You’ve got to cover the fingers. There’s no reason to not cover the fingers like a bad glove. Just have a piece of leather that goes over the fingertips, so you have one thing,” Joe Rogan stated on the JRE podcast. “It’s not gonna invade your grappling, and it’s not gonna change your striking. It’s not going to change anything. This way, at least if you get poked in the eye, you are getting a blunt thing, you are not getting something that goes into your eyeball.”

Some people may be thinking that Tom Aspinall made an escape from Ciryl Gane because he was losing the first round. But there’s no need to worry because a rematch is likely going to take place. The heavyweight division just cannot catch a break, but let’s hope we get a conclusive result. Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.