In a strange turn of events, Tom Aspinall’s training partner, Ante Delija, was ruled to have taken an eye poke in his UFC fight on Saturday – a week after Aspinall’s bout was stopped by being poked in both eyes.
Aspinall was defending his undisputed heavyweight title for the first time when, in the very first round, Cyril Gunn punched the Briton in both eyes simultaneously.
The 32-year-old Aspinall was unable to continue the fight and the main event of UFC 321 in Abu Dhabi was declared a No Contest.
And a week later, Delija’s second UFC outing ended in chaos after he was judged to have been on the other side of such a foul.
DeLija, also a heavyweight, faced Waldo Cortes Acosta on the Fight Night card in Las Vegas, appearing to overwhelm his opponent with endless strikes.
Referee Mark Smith waved off the bout, but a replay showed that Delija had apparently hit Cortez Acosta in the closing stages. As such, Smith restarted the fight but first gave Cortes Acosta time to recover.
After the action resumed, Cortez Acosta soon produced a TKO of the Croat and earned a first-round victory.
Delija, 35, took to Instagram on Sunday to complain about the episode, writing in Croatian: “I’m not sure if I hit him in the eye, I think it’s near the eye and of course I want a video where you can see the stab!
“The referee didn’t call timeout, but stopped the fight and therefore declared me the winner. This decision cannot be changed later!”
The opponent sat and rested while watching the movie! After the break, replay was used – which the rules don’t allow!! After all, the fight continued irregularly!
“I ask for nothing more, just honesty. I don’t run away from failure, I respect every opponent and every result. But not when the rules are broken and stolen from me. Not like this. Sports has never seen this!!!”
Before Saturday’s event, Delija said of Aspinall’s incident with Gunn: “I think so [Aspinall] He did a great job by not continuing, and if more fighters do the same, I think we can prevent the same thing from happening again.
I really don’t understand. I had 33 fights and never hit anyone in the eye. And I believe that the punishment should be severe.”
After Aspinall’s incident with Gunn, UFC president Dana White said a rematch would be booked as soon as possible. By four days after the fight, Aspinall was still unable to see in his right eye and was limited to “50 percent” vision in his left.
Before UFC 321, Aspinall said he would not fight DeLija due to his friendship. The Brit said he would prefer to relinquish his title, a move White deemed “crazy”. “I hate it,” said the UFC president.
