Stipe Miocic can slightly relate to Tom Aspinall's eye injury.

Aspinall relinquished his UFC heavyweight title after recovery from multiple eye surgeries took longer than expected. Aspinall was poked in both eyes by Ciryl Gane during their title fight at UFC 321 last October, and the Brit is still experiencing vision problems.

Former UFC heavyweight champion Miocic, who suffered a bad eye injury in his title-fight rematch against Daniel Cormier at UFC 241, praised Aspinall (15-3 MMA, 8-1 UFC) for allowing the division to move on without him.

"Looking at Tommy's situation, I just think, 'Good of him to do that,'" Miocic told said of Aspinall in an interview with Casino.org. "I understand it's probably hard for him to vacate his title the way he did. I give him kudos for doing that because I know it's hard for him. He was on top of the world, and then everything changed. ... He got an eye poke. I've been there.

"I've torn my retina before, and it's tough. I just want to give him lots of credit for doing that. It happened to me in my second fight with DC (Cormier). I got poked in the eye accidentally, and after the fight, I was kind of like, 'Man, my eyes are kind of weird-looking and feeling weird.' Unfortunately, these things happen, but he just has to move on from it and just see it as bad luck."

Aspinall initially spoke out on his discontent with UFC CEO Dana White downplaying his injury, but Miocic advises him not to pay too much mind.

"The UFC's never happy with anyone unless they're making them a ton of money, so forget about them," Miocic said. "I think he did the right thing if you know you're going to be out that long. I've been out for a while, but I've been back within the year. If it was any longer than that, I would probably do the same as he did and vacate."