UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall provided the latest update on a potential date for his return to the Octagon.

Aspinall has been out with an eye injury since UFC 321 last October, when he injured his eye in his UFC heavyweight title fight against Ciryl Gane. The fight was ruled a No Contest due to an accidental eye poke ending it, and Aspinall has unfortunately not fought since then, with fans eagerly awaiting the return of one of the heavyweight division’s most potent finishers.

Now, nearly seven months after his injury occurred, Aspinall is providing his fans with the latest update that he’s heard on a potential return date to the UFC.

Tom Aspinall Provides Update on Return

Speaking to the “Fight Your Corner” podcast, Aspinall provided fans with the latest update he’s heard about his eye injury. According to the heavyweight champ, he was hoping to get back to sparring soon, but his doctors recently gave him bad news and said it would be a few more months.

“At the minute, I’ve just had my recent scan. I thought it was going to get cleared actually to spar and fight straight away, but they actually said they’re giving me another couple of months, so I’m just waiting because the cells in your eye take a little bit longer to heal, so as soon as they’re healed, we should be good to go,” Aspinall said (via MMAFighting.com).

For Aspinall, the last seven months have been incredibly frustrating. He’s a competitor by nature, and he wants to step back into the Octagon and defend his belt. But right now, his eye is not ready to go, and he doesn’t have a date lined up for his potential return to the Octagon.

Interim UFC Heavyweight Title Set Up

In the meantime, Gane will battle Alex Pereira at UFC Freedom 250 on June 14 at the White House in Washington, D.C, with the interim UFC heavyweight title on the line.

Fans don’t like interim titles, in general, but in this case, the interim belt is necessary because there is no set return date for Aspinall. The UFC heavyweight division just can’t sit around and wait for Aspinall to heal up, so the promotion made the right call in creating the interim belt so the weight class can keep on chugging along while Aspinall is out of commission.

As far as the Gane vs. Pereira fight goes, the winner of that bout is set to fight Aspinall in a title unification bout, hopefully later this year, though the fact that Aspinall still can’t return to sparring for a few more months is a bit worrisome. It’s possible that this injury could keep Aspinal sidelined for the rest of the year, which would be a massive bummer for everyone involved.

Hopefully, Aspinall is ready to go as soon as possible so he can get back in the cage and defend the UFC heavyweight title against the winner of Gane vs. Pereira, and ideally, the fight happens before 2026 is over.