Abu Dhabi — After the unfortunate letdown that was Saturday’s UFC 321 main event, Dana White says the plan is to run the fight back.
The heavyweight title fight between Tom Aspinall and Ciryl Gane ended in a No Contest after Aspinall was poked in the eye and rendered unable to continue late in the opening round. The result was a massive letdown to fans at the Etihad Arena, many of whom began streaming out of the venue. Those who stayed voiced their displeasure.
“I feel the way everybody feels. Great showing, sh*tty ending,” White, the UFC CEO and President, said following the fight. “I think after the [Jon] Jones fight, a lot of people wrote Gane off. He looked damn good tonight.”
The fight itself looked “good,” White added, suggesting it “looked like we were in for a few rounds, and it was going to be a good fight.”
The plan now is to book the rematch, White confirmed. “Yeah. Total pain in the ass, but yes.” As for eye pokes, which the UFC attempted to curb with an ill-fated change in glove design recently, “no matter what you do with the gloves, they’re going to happen,” he stated.
The rematch between Aspinall and Gane is one White hopes to book soon. While White is usually non-committal about match-making after events, he went as far to suggest that the UFC hopes to run the fight back perhaps as early as the new year.
“Yeah, I mean they’re both in shape, other than whatever’s wrong with his eye. Both guys are not injured. So as soon as possible.”
Asked about the circumstances surrounding the No Contest being declared — ultimately, the fighter has considerable say about whether he can continue on from an eye poke — White suggested that it was out of a promoter’s control.
“I can’t make people fight. And you definitely can’t make somebody continue if they feel they’ve been injured,” said White. “Only Tom knows what happened. Could he see, couldn’t he see, could he continue? Only he knows that.”
Watch the full UFC 321 post-fight press conference with Dana White above.
