{"id":40501,"date":"2026-09-15T08:56:59","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T08:56:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/Tom-Aspinall-vacates-UFC-heavyweight-title-amid-ongoing-eye-issues-202801"},"modified":"2026-09-15T08:56:59","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T08:56:59","slug":"tom-aspinall-vacates-ufc-heavyweight-title-amid-ongoing-eye-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/tom-aspinall-vacates-ufc-heavyweight-title-amid-ongoing-eye-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom Aspinall vacates UFC heavyweight title amid ongoing eye issues"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/tom-aspinall-vacates-ufc-heavyweight-title-amid-ongoing-eye-issues.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"\/><\/div>\n<p><a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/fighter\/Tom-Aspinall-65231\">Tom<br \/>\nAspinall<\/a> has vacated the <a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/organizations\/Ultimate-Fighting-Championship-2\"><br \/>\nUltimate Fighting Championship<\/a> heavyweight title due to ongoing<br \/>\ncomplications from an eye injury that has sidelined him for nearly<br \/>\na year.<\/p>\n<p>Aspinall hasn\u2019t competed since his bout against <a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/fighter\/Ciryl-Gane-293973\">Ciryl Gane<\/a><br \/>\nended in a no contest last October. Gane accidentally poked him in<br \/>\nboth eyes and the Brit subsequently underwent multiple eye<br \/>\nprocedures. He still hasn&#8217;t received medical clearance to return to<br \/>\nthe Octagon and has opted to relinquish the championship.<\/p>\n<div id=\"adViAi\">\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Tom Aspinall explains why he relinquished the UFC heavyweight<br \/>\nchampionship<\/h2>\n<p>Aspinall took to Instagram to share a lengthy message announcing<br \/>\nhis decision to vacate the title amid recent complications with his<br \/>\nright eye. The former champion revealed that he had previously<br \/>\nagreed to a fight date and resumed sparring before an accident<br \/>\ncaused further damage.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had previously agreed to a fight date and was back sparring,<br \/>\nfeeling great and ready to compete when an accident caused further<br \/>\ndamage to my right eye,\u201d Aspinall wrote on Instagram. \u201cOngoing<br \/>\ncomplications with my eyes mean I cannot get medically cleared to<br \/>\nfight right now. I\u2019ve had multiple surgeries, accidents, and<br \/>\ninfections, and done everything possible to get back to<br \/>\ncompeting.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Rather than further stalling the heavyweight division, Aspinall has<br \/>\nopted to give up his belt.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve now made the decision to vacate the heavyweight title,\u201d<br \/>\nAspinall added. \u201cI\u2019ve asked the UFC to allow me to make this<br \/>\nstatement because I don\u2019t want to hold the heavyweight division up.<br \/>\nI know what it\u2019s like to have your career put on hold, and I want<br \/>\nthe other fighters to have the opportunity to compete for the<br \/>\ntitle.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Aspinall also clarified in his post that he isn\u2019t walking away from<br \/>\nthe sport and looks forward to returning to action.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ll be back as soon as I\u2019m medically able to be,\u201d Aspinall wrote.<br \/>\n\u201cThank you to everyone who has supported me throughout this<br \/>\nabsolute nightmare.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><center><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"instagram-media\" data-instgrm-captioned data-instgrm-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DdQpcjUAMJ5\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" data-instgrm-version=\"14\" readability=\"-0.2625\"><\/blockquote>\n<p><\/center>  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tom Aspinall has vacated the Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight title due to ongoing complications from an eye injury that has sidelined him for nearly a year. Aspinall hasn\u2019t competed since his bout against Ciryl Gane ended in a no contest last October. Gane accidentally poked him in both eyes and the Brit subsequently underwent multiple [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40502,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-martial-arts-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}