CIRYL GANE makes his first defence of the UFC heavyweight title next month.

But a dark cloud has hung over the Frenchman since his coronation as the king of the MMA leader’s 265lbs division.

Gane was elevated from interim to undisputed champion in September after it was revealed that Brit Tom Aspinall had vacated his title after suffering a setback in his recovery from multiple eye surgeries.

Those surgeries, of course, were the result of Gane turning the Atherton assassin’s head into a human bowling ball with a horror double eye poke latein the first round of their Abu Dhabi dust-up last October.

The bumping up of Gane, who won the interim title in June with a White House walloping of Alex Pereira, hasn’t sat well with many fans as Aspinall wouldn’t have been injured had he not gouged his eyes.

UK MMA pioneer Brad Pickett is among those left uneasy by the ordeal, telling SunSport via Best Offshore Sportsbooks: “He’s not fighting at the moment, and he’s had his belt stripped.

“I think it was all very unjust for such an unfortunate incident.

“I don’t blame Ciryl Gane, but I do understand the division does have to go on.”

Aspinall’s vacation of the belt came after his right eye went back to square one after getting hit in preparation for a unification rematch with Gane at UFC 334 next month.

He’ll now have to wait until January to undergo a scan of the optic, which may need even more surgery.

SUN VEGAS WELCOME OFFER: GET UP TO £100 BONUS

Aspinall was branded a “quitter” by many fight fans in the immediate aftermath of the pokes, which have turned his entire life upside down.

Pickett said: “I feel so bad for Tom. When it first happened, I didn’t think it looked too bad.

“It didn’t look too bad at all. I was like, ‘Mate, mate!’

“But then also you see; think about what’s on the line. You don’t wanna roll the dice. You work so hard to get to the top.

“So you don’t just go, ‘Oh, let me just go back in. I might be able to do all right.’

“You fight the best guys in the world. So if you’ve been impaired, and also by an illegal blow, why would you continue?

“Then afterwards, it shows he’s not faking nothing. He’s a fighter; do you reckon if he could fight, he wouldn’t be fighting?

“He 100 per cent would be fighting.

“He’s not just living on the money that he’s earned. He’s earned good money, don’t get me wrong, but he’s a fighter.

“He’s earned that sort of money because he loves fighting. He had to fight to go earn that money.

“And people don’t realise his livelihood’s gone now.”

Aspinall is, understandably, still very much irked by Gane’s viral foul – which he believes was intentional.

But Pickett said: “I don’t think it was deliberate. It’s careless sometimes, but I don’t think he deliberately poked in the eye.

“Sometimes you’re not thinking straight.

“I don’t think it’s a deliberate foul and that he meant to be like, ‘Oh my God, I’m gonna poke you in the eyes.’

“It wasn’t deliberate, I get that, but yes, it was careless of him and that is one thing in the sport which is really bad.”