Tom Aspinall: “I just hate the [MMA] business”
Written by admin on February 18, 2026
Tom Aspinall loves the lifestyle pieces of being a competitive mixed martial artist, but the politics involved in the machinations of the business are not to his preference.
In a detailed interview with Petesy Carroll of Uncrowned, the UFC heavyweight champion broke the fourth wall and let fans see what his recovery has looked like since dealing with residual eye poke issues from his Ciryl Gane clash in October.
After the no-contest verdict at UFC 321, the UK native has been dealing with eye injury complications, where a return timeline is not within his focus at all, and his health is of paramount importance. In an interview feature excerpt that was posted to X account @ChampRDS, Aspinall said,
“I’ll never stop loving [MMA], but I just hate the business. I think that fighters are completely replaceable and the business will make you feel like that any chance it gets. Even if you get hit with an illegal move, which could affect the rest of your life, they don’t really give a sh*t. And no one else does either.”
Tom Aspinall gives an update on the fallout of double eye surgery
Tom Aspinall seems to be improving from where he was at late last year, but there are still complications aplenty. The road ahead will see Aspinall deal with a lot, including an inability to track moving targets that the prolific titleholder mentioned he was still dealing with in the referenced Uncrowned feature.
The physical nature of the dual eye procedure was so intensive that Tom Aspinall mentioned how he wasn’t sure he would be able to do it again, as he felt his eye being scraped for the entirety of the surgery. Unsubstantiated loose reports going around regarding Aspinall being stripped of his UFC crown had no validity to them. But yet, there is far from a defined return timeline in place, if Aspinall even returns at all.
