UFC

Britain’s Tom Aspinall has vacated his UFC heavyweight title because of complications in his recovery from an eye injury, but says he has no plans to retire.

The 33-year-old has not fought since October 2025, when the first defence of his title against Ciryl Gane ended in a no-contest following several eye pokes.

Aspinall was diagnosed with a rare eye condition, and has had persistent double vision and several operations.

“I am absolutely gutted. I have chased this dream since I was 10 years old,” he said in a statement.

“I know what it’s like to have your career put on hold and I want the other fighters to have the opportunity to compete for the title.”

In June Aspinall said he had returned to full training for a rematch with France’s Gane and suggested they could fight in September.

In August Aspinall rejected reports that he would leave the UFC.

“I am not done. Stepping away from the title is not stepping away from the sport or the dream,” he said on Monday.

“I will continue doing everything I can to get healthy, get cleared and get back to competing as soon as possible.”

UFC president Dana White hinted over the weekend that Aspinall could be stripped of the title.

This month Valentina Shevchenko vacated the women’s flyweight title because of persistent injuries.

Gane beat Alex Pereira to win the interim heavyweight title in June before calling for a rematch with Aspinall.

Initially, it seemed Campbell’s time in the gym would serve the sole purpose of learning self-defence before moving to secondary school a couple of years later.

That was until he started competing in amateur competitions, slowly but surely becoming obsessed with his newfound escape from the difficulties he faced at school.

“I was quite a soft kid, in the sense that I didn’t really like the violence or the fighting,” Campbell said.

“I felt like when I did fight, and when I really did go into it, everything changed and I never looked back.”

Aged 15, he won his first international Muay Thai title and started to realise that, with the blessing of his parents, combat sports could become more than just a pastime.

“I was never the cleverest kid. I was always in the bottom sets at school, so I wasn’t really focused,” Campbell said.

“All of the teachers told me, ‘you need to do something else. You have to have a plan B.'”

But for Campbell, who was beginning to attract attention across Merseyside, his unwavering commitment to the sport meant there was no need for a back-up plan.

That included regularly running almost five miles to and from school. There was even one occasion when he missed school while studying for his GCSEs to attend a coaching seminar in Liverpool hosted by John Kavanagh – the coach of former two-weight UFC champion Conor McGregor.

After completing his GCSE exams at the age of 16, Campbell enrolled on a college course that combined studying for a qualification in sport with playing football.

Or at least that was what he was supposed to be doing.

Campbell struck an arrangement with the course leads that allowed him to attend classes before leaving to train in combat sports, while his peers were on the football pitch.

“I was always avoiding anything just for fighting,” Campbell said.

“I really didn’t like school. It wasn’t me. But I made a good few mates there, so you’ve got to take the pros with the cons.”

Makhachev was greeted by loud cheers as he made his walkout and made a statement in the first round as he took Machado Garry down at the first attempt.

The Irishman defended on the ground admirably, but it was a sign of things to come as Makhachev controlled the rest of the round with the challenger trapped against the side of the cage.

Makhachev’s dominance continued into the second round as he knocked Machado Garry down with a head kick, before slamming the dazzled Irishman to the canvas.

Again Machado Garry survived until the end of the round and although he found some success with a number of kicks midway through the fight, Makhachev continued to assert control when the pair grappled.

Machado Garry bloodied Makhachev’s face with some punches in the clinch, but the Russian shrugged it off to reach the final bell ahead in a number of key stats.

He secured seven unanswered takedowns and clocked over 12 minutes of control time to Machado Garry’s 34 seconds.

Although the Irishman landed 29 significant strikes to Makhachev’s 22, it was not enough to convince the judges of the win.

In a show of respect, the pair embraced before Machado Garry raised Makhachev’s arm in victory.

“To all my fans, Ireland, everybody, I’m sorry I couldn’t get this done,” said Machado Garry.

“But I stand here as a man proud of what I’ve done, proud of where I came from and proud where this will take me. To all the fans who doubt me, I’ll be back.”

At 28, Machado Garry has plenty of time to realise his dream of becoming a UFC champion, while Makhachev’s victory adds weight to claims he’s closing in on being regarded as the greatest UFC fighter of all time.