​Justin
Gaethje’s manager, Ali Abdelaziz, believes Ilia
Topuria has no say in whether an immediate rematch happens.
Topuria suffered the first loss of his professional career against
Gaethje, losing the
Ultimate Fighting Championship lightweight title at
UFC Freedom 250 in June. Topuria has since pushed for a
rematch. Abdelaziz, however, dismissed the possibility.Ali Abdelaziz says Justin Gaethje has nothing to gain from an
immediate Ilia Topuria rematch
Talking with Submission Radio, Abdelaziz emphasized that Topuria
doesn’t have the power to call for an immediate rematch. He further
claimed that Gaethje simply has the Georgian-Spaniard’s number and
will beat him again should they run it back.
“He’s not fighting Justin Gaethje next,” Abdelaziz said. “He
doesn’t call the shots. Only one guy in the past did that and his
name is Conor
McGregor and he’s not Conor McGregor. Nobody is. He was a
favorite because everybody thought he was better than Justin. I
believe Justin Gaethje will beat him nine out of 10 times. You know
why? Justin has his number. I don’t think he can beat Justin
Gaethje. He thinks he can, and he should think he can. He was close
to beating Justin Gaethje, but he didn’t. At the end of the day,
this fight will never happen. I can tell you this: Justin Gaethje
has zero gain to beat Ilia Topuria again.”
Abdelaziz then addressed Topuria’s claim that Gaethje had something
unusual in his gloves during their fight.
“If this is what he wants to say that he had rocks in his gloves,
that’s a compliment to Justin Gaethje; how hard he punches,”
Abdelaziz said. “I’m not going to be insulted by that, because the
Las Vegas Commission was there, the D.C. Commission was there,
Andy
Foster from California was there. He had three commissions
watching him about the gloves. But he said that (during) Arman’s
fight week to take away from Arman and Ruffy’s hype. This is what
Conor used to do, and he did a good job. He got himself in the
media.”