Video
Original Description
On the UFC 321 Post Show, Brendan Fitzgerald, Chael Sonnen and Anthony Smith react to the main event heavyweight title fight between Tom Aspinall and Ciryl Gane ending in a no contest.
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Video Transcript
Welcome in. There are things to talk
about. Not what we were expecting to
talk about. Hall of Famer Chale Sun and
Anthony Linhardt Smith. I'm Brennan
Fitzgerald. We were supposed to see the
baddest man on the planet officially
crowned Tom Aspenol in defense of his
undisputed heavyweight title for the
first time. Sirill gone trying for it. I
poke round one. It's over. Ch. What
words do you have?
I'm mad and I don't know who I'm mad at.
I'm either mad at Surreal or I'm mad at
Tom. Something about this though was
very off. Look, the fight they were kind
of getting to know each other. They were
kind of feeling each other out. Tom did
everything right, by the way. He came
out there, he threw the big bombs, but
Surreal was slipping. Surreal did show
us that 29 professional wins in
kickboxing does matter. I thought
Surreal was looking very good. I mean, I
know that we're all going to have our
debates on this fight, but if they are
in fact going to rematch it, I think the
better of the two tonight. I think that
Surreal probably learned more, got more
experience, and his confidence is the
one that will go up. Anthony, no,
I'm just disappointed. I'm disappointed.
I I talked all day yesterday like I just
want to see Tom have to overcome some
adversity. I want to see what he does
when the things the when his first plan
of action doesn't work. What's he
checked down to? Is he going to wrestle?
Can he compete with Sir Gone on his feet
for 25 minutes? And I don't get any of
those answers. And and and just like
everybody at home, I'm disappointed.
Being poked in the eye is illegal,
Brendan. But to fight with one eye is
very common. The opponent's trying to
hit your eyes, trying to bust up and
make your make your nose bleed. So So
that part of it does have question for
guys like Anthony and I. We're trying to
be polite. We're trying to show grace.
But but in all fairness, if you're the
heavyweight champion of the world, you
got to fight with one eye at times.
Well, we're sitting here as the stoppage
approaches a minute, minute and a half.
And I said, "Wow, watch it end like
this." Cuz it didn't seem It didn't look
that bad on initial look. You were
calling it Chail minutes before the
fight stopped. You said he's already
made his decision. This fight's not
continuing. And a few minutes later, you
were proven right. What did you see
during the stoppage that had you so
convicted that it was going to be over?
Well, first off, I thought that the
fight was turning out to be a little bit
harder than perhaps Ton had expected. I
had one concern with Tom and this is not
his fault. It's because he's so dogone
good. But the reality is he finished six
guys in the first round. He's never been
to a third round of a fight just for
example. So the question is how are you
going to respond when things get tough?
And Tom was throwing bombs. Tom was
throwing the kind of punches that had
they landed would have ended the night
and did end the night for six prior
opponents. And I'm just saying when the
opportunity came to take a little bit of
a break, you can use that and you can
even game that system to catch your
wind. But there was something about the
way that the story was being told, the
way that it was being held on the eye
and never removed. I mean, don't forget
this cloth that he had in his eye
contained an ice cube. This wasn't some
kind of a magic cloth that was going to
cure a cornea or something that was
wrong with your eye or even take
swelling away. It contained an ice cube
and it was just being held on there
oddly. Then there was conversations that
were taking place. There were there was
a story that was being told and I've
checked out of fights before. I know
what it looks like and I knew that he
was done.
Hey, there here it is in real time. And
again, when you show it in slow motion,
he had the cloth over his right eye.
It's the left eye that got the knuckle
deep index finger of Sirill Gan. The
right eye got more of a scrape, which
can be worse at times. We've seen fights
end due to an innocent looking scrape of
the eye or whatever you would call it.
That's not ideal. Uh your reaction to
Tom's reaction, Anthony, on, you know,
the disgust that he felt because he
knows this is going to affect his
legacy, his fault or not. Well, don't be
mad at me. You had a job to do and you,
for whatever reason, you guys did
whatever you did and you didn't do your
job. I'm not saying it's Tom's fault and
I'm not I'm not going to, you know,
pretend that I know how bad it is or
isn't. I I think Chale made it made a
poetic point that you have to be used to
or willing to fight with one eye. I did
it in Singapore. The everyone talks
about it all the time where the the the
ladies waving stuff in front of my eyes.
I can't see it. So, what do I do? I just
walk away and say, "Let's fight." you
just like you you either want to or you
don't. And I'm my fight wasn't for a
world title. I didn't have Sarah gone in
front of me throwing bombs. But the
second that there was an issue. I knew
that I wanted to continue. So I know
what to say. You never say I can't see
if you want to continue to fight. So
when they ask the question, you just nod
your head and you just walk away. Like
you find a way to get away from the
doctor. If you want to fight, you can
fight.
My trainer, Coach Clayton, when we'd be
practicing, every now and then he would
yell out to the whole room, "Close your
left eye." And then, you know, open your
left eye, close your right eye later. or
he he'd say, "Don't breathe through your
nose anymore. Breathe through your
mouth." And the idea was if your eye
gets swollen and it gets shut, or if
your nose gets clogged and you can't
breathe, that that you're kind of used
to these things. Tom said something and
look, we we got to dwell on a guy in a
really bad moment. But to dwell on him,
he said, "I got I got poked in the eye,
I can't see." If you got poked in the
eye and you're injured, we have a
totally different conversation. If you
get poked in the eye and you can't see,
generally in our sport, that's that
that's just something you've got to push
through. In terms of the first few
minutes of the fight, like DC
acknowledged, Laura Senko talked about
on the broadcast, they had a real fight
going. Anthony, to your point yesterday
and all in the buildup to this fight,
your pick was Sarah Gon and it was going
how you thought it might go for the
challenger.
Yeah, he he had a mirror of himself in
front of him uh and and it was a bit
uncomfortable. He had a guy that wasn't
standing still. Fact, we we talked
yesterday about the the majority of Tom
Aspenol's opponents stay right there on
the center line and hope that they can
block or take the shot and typically
they can't. Sirill gone is not going to
stay on the center line. So when Tom
starts to throw, serial dips and he's
gone. Well then Tom was starting to
struggle with that. Now in the next 20
minutes is he was he going to be able to
to figure that out? I don't know. I
don't know. But typically, you're at
your best in the first round, especially
when you weigh 260 lbs and you carry all
that muscle and size and weight. I don't
know that he was going to get better in
the next 20 minutes, but maybe he could
make some adjustments, slow down, but he
was also fighting like a guy that was in
a two- round fight.
He was kind of sprinting.
And just to add to Anony's point, the
story of this fight going in, according
to all the people that thought they
knew, was that uh Tom was going to take
him down and be able to keep him there.
He wasn't close.
No, he wasn't even close. Surreal did a
very good job laterally. Surreal didn't
just back up. He didn't just come
forward to plant his feet. Surreal
really for a heavyweight he moves very
well. I thought this was a very
beautiful performance by Surreal and his
defense was on point. I mean he was real
Tom was fast. Tom was throwing some
bombs. Really Surreal was just slipping
him. I he was showing that professional
kickboxing and I think that Surreal
stuck went up a little bit.
And there was one taked down.
One take down attempt. Yep.
Wasn't even close. And they don't get
closer as time goes on.
And what did you take from the fact that
he didn't continue to go for that? Did
you think that he would readjust and go
for it in the later rounds or did you
think
No, you feel it right away. You feel it
right away. If you if you take a shot
and you're not close and those hips are
too strong and they're meeting you and
he's making the right adjustments and he
turns and you're kind of just stuck out
there,
you know right away I don't want to
probably do that too many more times and
and it's not worth it. Like you're going
to you're going to you're going to use
more of your your conditioning and your
gas than it's worth. There's no reason
to do that two or three more times. You
can pretty much say at some point, all
right, I'm probably not going to get
and Tom's commitment to knock him out
did go up after that failed takedown
attempt. I mean, he started really
throwing with everything. Surreal really
did a good job of protecting himself. I
know I keep saying that, but he he
really did show that even in 2 minutes
and 30 seconds.
It's harder to do than I think we give
credit for. It's harder to not to not
take those shots than than we probably
talk about.
So, when you go for that takedown
though, and you get stuffed and you
start doing the math of do I want to set
him up and go for another takedown or am
I so far away, that's when you really
start swinging hard and I I think that
Tom did feel a little bit of wa this
guy's a little better than some people
gave him credit. He was a three to one
uh three and a half to one. Tom was a
favorite. Tom pushed back on that in the
media all week. He said, wait a minute,
this guy's my hardest challenge. And I
think that proved to be true.
What we knew is after this fight ended,
a lot of the conversation was
immediately going to shift to what's
next, Jones Pereira. Now it's all of a
sudden this fight again, this buildup
again. It seems to be as simple as that.
Anthony, does it not?
It I mean, it has to. It was
unintentional. Uh Sarah was was nothing
but kind on the sometime I sometimes I
think some of those decisions get made
in the in the in the interviews. If he
if he's you know if he's not as graceful
possibly about it and and maybe Tom was
more graceful maybe they could find
their way to something else. This seems
to be the fight then I'm tell you what
the narrative is going to be tomorrow is
that Tom Aspenol was in a fight that was
harder than he thought it was going to
be like Chill historically talks about
and look for a way out. That's going to
be the narrative. That's not what I'm
saying. I would never say that, but
that's what everybody else is going to
say.
And I think we got a little bit closer
as fans to making Jones and Pier real. I
think that fight got a little bit
closer. I think the great winner of
tonight or loser rather was Volkov. I
think Volkov thought he found himself in
a number one contenders match which a
few people tried to help him get to
because they thought he did so with
Surreal. I think we're going to rematch
uh this contest. I think we need to. I
got to tell you, I would be more excited
for the rematch than I was for this one.
They both showed that they're a problem
for each other. I mean,
the odds will be closer. There's no
doubting that. the beauty of the fact
that they're both heavyweights. No
severe weight cuts, no ramping it up.
They're still in condition like DC said,
December is when he wants it. That's a
real possibility with these hits.
Oh, good for you. I love that you're
doing this. I mean, let's build this
fight. I love that DC kicked this off. I
mean, I think the December card could
really use these two heavyweights. And
it is one of those fights where we don't
really have to build it. It's already
built. We know what we're getting into.
We just got to get the fight to the
ring. We got to make the eye feel
better. We got to get the fight to the
ring. By the way, we only have two
rules. Don't poke the guy in the eye and
don't bite him. So, I mean, in all
fairness, I do want to show a grace to
Tom Aspenol. I just share that Tom has
not yelled had to deal with an
adversity. This is his first one. This
wasn't his fault, but it was an
adversity nonetheless. And that is a
test he did not pass.
I'm excited for this fight to be as soon
as possible. For one reason, I wanted to
see what the result is right now.
I feel like it's going to be unfair for
Tom to go in there and struggle. If
we're being honest, he was struggling
there. wasn't looking great. He was
having some problems. It seems unfair
for him to have that almost five minutes
of data. Now keep his title as almost as
if he took a loss, but he still gets to
keep the title, go back, fix all of
those problems, and then four months
down the road
and then come back and now serial is now
he's fighting a different guy as if if
it's as if it's the first time. If we do
it in December, it's not enough time for
either one of them to change anything.
Not significantly.