May 10, 2025; Montreal, Quebec, CANADA; Belal Muhammad (red gloves) fights Jack Della Maddalena (blue gloves) during UFC 315 at Bell Centre. Mandatory Credit: Eric Bolte-Imagn Images

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Belal Muhammad Lends Support To Tom Aspinall After UFC 321 Eye Poke Fallout

May 10, 2025; Montreal, Quebec, CANADA; Belal Muhammad (red gloves) fights Jack Della Maddalena (blue gloves) during UFC 315 at Bell Centre. Mandatory Credit: Eric Bolte-Imagn Images

Eye pokes are the worst. They are sudden, painful, and they can ruin a perfectly good fight. When they happen in a title bout, things get even messier. Fans get angry, critics start talking, and suddenly the fighter who got poked becomes the bad guy. It’s weird, but that’s how it goes sometimes. Tom Aspinall found himself in this exact situation after UFC 321, where a nasty eye poke from Ciryl Gane ended his heavyweight title defense with a NC in the first round. The backlash came fast and hard, with people questioning whether he should have continued.

Belal Muhammad, the former welterweight champion knows this pain all too well. He has been through the same ordeal, faced the same criticism, and lived to tell the tale. Now he’s reaching out to Aspinall with some straightforward advice. He’s speaking from experience, having dealt with one of the most infamous eye pokes in recent UFC history.

Belal Muhammad Sends A Comforting Message To Tom Aspinall

Speaking on his YouTube channel, Muhammad delivered some real talk to Aspinall. He told the heavyweight champ to stop trying to prove himself to everyone. Aspinall has been posting updates, showing doctor visits, and documenting his eye injury on social media. He’s trying to show people he wasn’t faking it. Muhammad says that’s a waste of time. Even with all the proof in the world, people will still doubt you. They’ll still say you quit or took the easy way out.

“Tom, you just gotta stop caring. Stop caring what they’re thinking, stop caring what they’re saying, just embrace the boos…Welcome. I open up the door for you, bro. Come chill with me. We’ll sit over here, we’ll take these boos, but we’re gonna win. Same way I used it as fuel, you use that as fuel. Next time you go in there with Ciryl, you felt his speed, you felt his power, now you gotta make him pay for everything you’re going through now.”

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Muhammad doesn’t believe Aspinall was looking for an exit strategy against Gane. He thinks the British fighter was doing fine, despite getting bloodied early. Sure, it wasn’t the lightning-fast knockout people expected from Aspinall, but there were still four rounds to go. When a fighter can’t see out of one eye, though, continuing isn’t just difficult. It’s dangerous. Muhammad remembers not being able to open his eye for thirty minutes after his incident. The pain is real, and so are the risks.

Belal Muhammad’s Encounter With Eye Pokes

Muhammad’s first UFC main was him fighting Leon Edwards, ranked third in the welterweight division at the time. It was his chance to prove he belonged among the elite. Then, early in the second round, Edwards’ fingers went straight into Muhammad’s eyes. The fight was stopped and ruled a no contest. The criticism was brutal. People said he quit, that he was soft, that he cried over nothing.

Leon Edwards vs Belal Muhammad. More of an eye pull than a poke 👀 .. in the 2nd Round of their Main event Leon accidentally gouges Belal's eye socket resulting in him being unable to see or continue .. this ended as a No Contest and we're still waiting to see the rematch 😅 pic.twitter.com/Cu1eYUH1Re
— RedWolf🐺 (@RedWolfMMA) April 2, 2024

What made it worse for Muhammad was his history with eye surgeries. Doctors had warned him about continuing the sport. When that eye poke happened, he thought his career might be over. He wasn’t crying from pain alone. He was crying because years of work seemed to vanish in seconds. But Muhammad bounced back. He won five straight fights and eventually got his rematch with Edwards, this time for the welterweight title. He won decisively, shutting up most critics in the process.

Now Muhammad wants Aspinall to follow the same path. Stop worrying about online trolls. Stop posting medical updates. Just embrace the boos and prepare for the rematch. It’s simple revenge math, really. Muhammad opened the door to the “eye poke victims club,” and now Aspinall’s got a seat at the table!

(Image Credit: Eric Bolte – Imagn Images)

Belal Muhammad

Tom Aspinall

UFC 321

Zaid Quraishi

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I am a dedicated MMA and Boxing content writer at The Playoffs. I was instantly hooked on MMA after watching the fight between Lyoto Machida vs. Gegard Mousasi back in 2014, and since then, i have been an avid writer with a deep love for the sport and its techniques, providing readers with a thorough understanding of the sport. My favorite aspect of working at The Playoffs is the creative freedom it provides. The diverse range of topics, from listicles and SEO to news articles, keeps me engaged and motivates me to continuously improve my skills! I aim to capture the excitement of the combat sports world in my writing, acting as the middleman between fighters and their die-hard fans. It is kind of like a referee, but with words!