UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall has acknowledged that his confidence has been affected after his fight against Ciryl Gane in October.Aspinall (15-3) made his first title defense against Gane (13-1) at UFC 321, but the fight was stopped in the first round after Aspinall suffered an eye poke. The bout was declared a no contest.Since then, he has undergone eye surgeries and, although he has returned to light training, it is not clear when he could return to the octagon.After the incident, Aspinall expressed his disappointment at the response of Dana White, UFC president, who said the Brit “didn’t want to continue” and seemed to downplay the fighter’s injuries.La pelea de Tom Aspinall contra Ciryl Gane fue declarada sin resultado.Speaking with reporters on Friday, Aspinall said: “I mean, how is your confidence not going to be affected? You work your whole life for something, and someone can just turn around and say that [I] just didn’t want to continue.”I’ve had millions of fights; I’ve been fighting since I was eight years old. That’s not the case.I need to work on that [confidence] a bit, and I feel like Eddie [Hearn] and the team are going to help with that. So that’s why I’ve come with them.”Aspinall has partnered with Eddie Hearn, who will act as manager, and the newly formed Matchroom Talent Agency.However, the heavyweight champion insisted that signing with Hearn has nothing to do with his relationship with White.”This isn’t about punctuation for me,” Aspinall said.”This is wanting to get what I think I’m worth. And if I can work with people I like and who are going to help me, I absolutely will. No, this isn’t to get revenge on anyone or anything like that.Dana hasn’t spoken to me. To be honest, as far as I know, or at least from my experience, UFC fighters don’t really have a personal relationship with Dana.We went through Hunter Campbell. I don’t think it’s really [White]’s job to communicate, but no, I haven’t spoken to him personally.
