Michael Bisping and current UFC Heavyweight Champion Tom Aspinall share a commonality: Both men have seen their vision become compromised in the wake of injuries that have happened during a fight. Back in October, Aspinall defended his championship at 265 in the UFC 321 main event.
Ciryl Gane (13-2, 1 NC MMA, 10-2, 1 NC UFC) lined up opposite Tom Aspinall (15-3, 1 NC, 8-1. 1 NC UFC) that autumn night. If you watched the fight live that weekend, you know what happened.
Inside the final half-minute of round one, Aspinall experienced a bilateral eye poke, and after the five-minute medical timeout expired, he could no longer continue in the fight, resulting in the bout being ruled a no-contest.
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In late November, Aspinall revealed that he had bilateral traumatic Brown’s syndrome. Although Tom Aspinall updated his fans on his prognosis last week, from personal experience, Michael Bisping knows that this is something Aspinall will need to be patient with.
Michael Bisping Recalls Own Vision Problems When Discussing Aspinall in YouTube Video
Over the weekend, Bisping took to YouTube to talk about his own issues with eyesight when he was fighting inside the fabled Octagon.
“The one thing you can’t do with an eye [injury] is rush back,” Michael Bisping said. “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, right? I never saw out of that eye again. So Tom has got to take his time.”
Tom Aspinall was initially elevated to UFC Heavyweight Champion six and a half months ago. In June of last year, ahead of UFC Baku, UFC CEO Dana White received a telephone call from former UFC Heavyweight Champion Jon Jones that he’d be retiring from active competition.
At the UFC Baku post-fight press conference on June 21, White revealed that Tom Aspinall would become the permanent heavyweight champion with immediate effect. He’d won the interim title in November of 2023 and defended it the following July.
Michael Bisping on Possibility of UFC Interim Heavyweight Championship Booking in Wake of Aspinall’s Recovery
Given that Tom Aspinall is facing a long road back from his eye poke, Michael Bisping took time out to address the chances that the promotion may need to schedule another interim title fight at 265.
“If he’s having surgery, he’s definitely going to be out for at least a few months,” he said in the video. “So what are they going to do? I hate to say it, but it wouldn’t surprise me if coming up very soon, we have an announcement of an interim title fight, which would be crazy because Tom was just the interim champion. He was the longest-reigning interim champion in the history of the organization, gets promoted to undisputed champion because Jon Jones walked away.”
Michael Bisping also used his YouTube space to discuss people who believed that Tom Aspinall quit against Ciryl Gane in UFC 321 this past fall.
“That wasn’t his fault,” he mentioned. “Anyone talking (expletive deleted) in the comment section needs to remember that, right? You’re not allowed to poke people in the eyes. He definitely got poked in the eye. They were really bad.”
Who Does Michael Bisping Think the UFC Books for Interim Title Fight?
In the event that Tom Aspinall has to undergo more surgery, Michael Bisping believes there’s one answer for an interim heavyweight title fight later on in 2026. Spoiler alert: “The Count’s” suggestion isn’t too much of a surprise.
“If he does need surgery, they are going to need to do an interim title fight, which leads me on to my guess, which is probably going to be Ciryl Gane vs. Alex ‘Poatan’ Pereira,” he said. “If there is going to be an interim title fight, and I hope there isn’t, and I’m not hoping or calling for that at all, but we did see that Alex Pereira said recently, no go for him at the White House.”
Ciryl Gane being booked for an interim heavyweight championship this year if Tom Aspinall can’t defend right away makes more sense than anything. Gane was already the challenger for Aspinall’s undisputed championship in the fall, so having him compete for the interim title if and when the fight is put on the schedule is a most-logical move.
“He is the No. 1 contender,” Michael Bisping said of Gane. “He was looking bloody good against Tom Aspinall. He is a beautiful kickboxer and stylistically for Alex ‘Poatan’ Pereira, it’s the best matchup, maybe not in all of the heavyweight division because Ciryl Gane is one of the guys that can rival Tom Aspinall in terms of agility, speed, quickness, light on the feet, technical precision.”
Final Thoughts
Whether or not the UFC books an interim title fight at heavyweight involving Ciryl Gane and Alex Pereira remains to be seen, but it does look like an appealing matchup to order. Suppose that Ciryl Gane wins the interim heavyweight championship:
The rematch between Ciryl Gane and Tom Aspinall instantly becomes more tantalizing. You’d have a battle for unification of the UFC Heavyweight Championship.
Anytime a championship unification fight is on the books, it’s an exciting showdown. If the unification battle is scheduled, get your popcorn ready.
