Brazilian lightweight Ismael “Marreta” Bonfim has spoken out in support of Tom Aspinall, who has faced a storm of criticism after his UFC 321 heavyweight title defense against Ciryl Gane ended in a no-contest due to a double eye poke.
Bonfim knows exactly how it feels to lose vision mid-fight — because earlier this year, he suffered a similar fate that left him completely unable to see out of his right eye for four days.
“Before it happened to me, I probably would’ve said, ‘Oh, no big deal, [Aspinall] can come back,’” Bonfim told MMA Fighting. “But only after it happened to me, I saw how sensitive that part of our body is. Especially the way Ciryl Gane did, poking both eyes. Brother, you can’t go back. If you go back, you’ve already lost 50 percent of the fight.”
Bonfim suffered the injury during his fight with Nazim Sadykhov in February, when he was caught clean by a question mark kick that fractured his orbital bone. Despite the blow being legal, it immediately blurred his vision and led to a doctor stoppage — a decision that he now believes was absolutely correct.
“I couldn’t see out of my right eye,” Bonfim recalled. “When I went back to my corner I told my brother Gabriel, ‘I can’t see anything.’ He said, ‘Calm down, it will come back.’ But it didn’t. I fought Saturday and only started seeing again on Wednesday. It was all blurry on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.”
Bonfim admitted the experience completely changed his perspective on fighters who choose not to continue after eye injuries. “We have to respect the doctor and the fighter’s opinion because only the fighter knows,” he said. “Sometimes the coach, the doctor, even the referee will put pressure [to continue], but only the one who got poked or hit truly knows if they can go on.”
Now fully recovered and feeling “100 percent,” Bonfim is set to return at UFC Vegas 111 against Chris Padilla, while his brother Gabriel Bonfim headlines the event versus Randy Brown. Ismael says he’s ready to remind fans of the explosive, aggressive style that made him one of Brazil’s most exciting prospects.
“I’ll go back to being the Ismael of old — aggressive, going for the knockout at all times,” he said. “It’s what I do best.” 💥🇧🇷
After enduring four frightening days of partial blindness, Bonfim’s respect for fighters like Tom Aspinall — who deal with similar situations under the brightest lights — has only deepened. “Sometimes people just don’t understand until it happens to them,” he said. 👊
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