Tom Aspinall on Ciryl Gane's win over Alex Pereira: 'A lot of illegal elbows going on'
Ciryl Gane became a two-time interim heavyweight champion last Sunday by defeating former two-division titleholder Alex Pereira in the UFC Freedom 250 co-main event. Gane stopped the Brazilian early in the second frame but it wasn’t without controversy.
Pereira was knocked down by a stiff jab and Gane followed him to the canvas unleashing a series of strikes. Pereira worked his way back to his feet but absorbed what appeared to be illegal blows to the back of the head. “Poaton” accused the Frenchman of working outside the rules in a frenzy to get the finish.
Heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall watched the fight live and agreed with Pereira. He pointed out the alleged illegal punches and elbows as they happened.
“They look a bit illegal,” Aspinall said while watching Pereira try to get back to his feet. “They look very illegal. What is going on? … I’ll have to watch that again and see. It looked like there was a lot of illegal elbows going on. And illegal punches.”
The interim title fight between Gane and Pereira was made because Aspinall continues to recover from injuries suffered in his UFC 321 title defense against Gane last October. Late in the opening round, Aspinall was poked in both eyes by Gane and rendered unable to continue. He’s yet to be cleared to spar but expects clearance to come soon.
