Stipe Miocic gives Tom Aspinall 'kudos' for vacating UFC title: 'I've torn my retina before'

The former heavyweight champion says his own eye damage came from a poke in his 2019 rematch with Daniel Cormier, and that Aspinall should see his injury as bad luck.

Stipe Miocic has backed Tom Aspinall's decision to vacate the UFC heavyweight title, saying he knows how hard the Briton's situation is after tearing a retina himself.

"Looking at Tommy's situation, I just think good of him to do that," Miocic told Athlon Sports. "I understand it's probably hard for him to vacate his title the way he did. I give him kudos for doing that because I know it's hard for him. He was on top of the world, and then everything changed."

He continued: "He got an eye poke. I've been there; I've torn my retina before, and it's tough. I just want to give him lots of credit for doing that."

Miocic said his own injury came in his second fight with Daniel Cormier, at UFC 241 in 2019. "I got poked in the eye accidentally, and after the fight, I was kind of like, 'Man, my eyes are kind of weird-looking and feeling weird.' Unfortunately, these things happen, but he just has to move on from it and just see it as bad luck," he said. Miocic won that rematch by fourth-round TKO to regain the heavyweight title.

The 44-year-old also said Aspinall should not worry about how the UFC reacts, arguing the promotion is not happy with anyone unless it is making a lot of money. He said he came back from his own layoff within a year, and would have made the same call as Aspinall had he expected to be out for longer.

Aspinall vacated the title in September, almost a year after his first defence of the undisputed belt ended in a first-round no contest when he was poked in the eye by Ciryl Gane at UFC 321. In his statement, he said ongoing complications with his eyes meant he could not get medically cleared, that an accident had caused further damage to his right eye after he had returned to sparring, and that the timing of his return was unclear.

Gane makes his first defence against Josh Hokit in the UFC 334 main event at Madison Square Garden on 14 November. Miocic has picked Gane to win that fight, and rates a rematch between Gane and Aspinall as about even.

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