"Jon Jones potential fight at the White House" - Sean O'Malley fears eye-poke could prove costly for Tom Aspinall's UFC career

While the anticlimactic end to the UFC 321 was no fault of Tom Aspinall, Sean O'Malley believes the outcome could prove costly for the Briton's mixed martial arts future.

As the former bantamweight champion sees it, a win in his first title defense could've even propelled Aspinall to a UFC White House clash against former champion Jon Jones:

"If Tom Aspinall goes out there and wins, what happens to his career after that? That's the Jon Jones potential fight at the White House. There is so much that Tom missed out on because of the super unfortunate, sad [outcome], and it would've made the heavyweight division a lot more fun... The crowd was insanely loud. I guess it [Aspinall vs. Gane] was a big fight. Would you watch it again? Do you make that fight again? Jon doesn't want to fight Tom, Alex doesn't want to fight Tom."

Check out Sean O'Malley empathizing with Tom Aspinall below:

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At UFC 321, Aspinall had a much closer fight with Ciryl Gane than many had anticipated. The champion was seemingly getting out-struck and had his face bloodied up by the Frenchman when an accidental eye-poke brought about a premature end to the bout.

As Aspinall failed to recover from the eye poke, the bout was turned into a no-contest. Amid the underwhelming ending, however, Alex Pereira has called for a heavyweight showdown against Jones at the White House, a challenge 'Bones' wasted no time accepting.

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Dana White shares update on Tom Aspinall vs. Ciryl Gane rematch

Perhaps the only good news for Tom Aspinall and Ciryl Gane after the UFC 321 debacle is that they will get to run it back soon, since Dana White seems to be on board with the idea of a rematch.

Addressing the media during the post-fight press conference, the UFC CEO confirmed the rematch. According to White, there would be a greater interest for bout the second time around, given how it was unfolding up until the eye poke:

''Total pain in the a*s but yes [we’ll book the rematch]. They’re both in shape, other than whatever’s wrong with his eye. Both guys are not injured. As soon as possible...I think that there probably will be a lot more interest in the rematch after they saw he had Tom bloodied up. Tom didn’t want to continue in the fight. The rematch is very interesting.'' [0:59 seconds into the interview]

Edited by Ujwal Jain