Have fans jumped on the Tom Aspinall train too early? Dustin Poirier delivers a brutally honest take

Dustin Poirier recently shared his thoughts on Tom Aspinall’s rise to the top and opined that the UFC heavyweight champion is untested in the cage.

Aspinall is one of the most popular fighters in mixed martial arts today and is widely considered among the best heavyweights in the sport. The UFC heavyweight champion has an incredible 15-3 record as a pro, with 12 of those wins coming by knockout.

In his last bout against Cyril Jean at UFC 321 last October, Aspinall was left unable to continue the fight due to his opponent’s illegal eye pokes in the opening round, and the referee eventually declared the bout a no contest.

During an episode of The Joe Rogan Experience podcast (JRE MMA Show No. 176), Poirier discussed Aspinall’s mercurial rise and shared his thoughts on whether fans may have jumped on the Englishman’s hype train too soon. He said:

“I wanted to see Tom have to come back. He loses a round and comes back. Obviously I’ve seen him fight, but I’ve never seen him in a real fight when you have to fight your way back in it… That’s why I was blown away by the fan base; those guys had such a high profile at Aspinall. For a few months, everyone was talking about how good he was. I’d never seen that before, not that he wasn’t. He has to be good to be where he is. But I didn’t see it.”

When Dustin Poirier reacted to Tom Aspinall’s eye poke incident at UFC 321

After Tom Aspinall failed to get an eye poke at UFC 321, Dustin Poirier shared his reaction and noted that he has continued to fight in the past despite getting poked.

In a video he posted on social media (via ChampRDS on X), the Englishman said:

“A lot of people ask me: What’s the story with Aspinall? What’s the story with the eye poke?” I don’t know. He’s the only one who knows how bad it is. But I went through a lot of fights where I got stabbed in the eye and it kept going.”