Justin Gaethje has dismissed Ilia Topuria, after the former champion appeared to insinuate that Gaethje had cheated during their UFC title fight.
In June, the pair headlined a remarkable event at the White House, with Topuria retiring on his stool before the final round. With that, the Georgian-Spaniard was beaten for the first time, as Gaethje took the lightweight belt from him.
Topuria has largely been silent since his defeat, but on Wednesday, he tweeted for the first time since the days before the fight. As he did, he vowed to return soon, while making an accusation against Gaethje.
“Final medical tests done. I’m back,” wrote the 29-year-old. “To all the clowns who’ve been talking s*** and counting me out this whole time, here I am. Now let’s see who’s got the balls.
“Thanks to everyone for the support. Next time I’ll make sure they check Justin’s gloves so he doesn’t put anything weird on them. See you soon.”
In a follow-up tweet, he took aim at Gaethje’s manager Ali Abdelaziz, writing: “By the way Justin, f*** you. And Ali, f*** you too.”
Abdelaziz replied: “Welcome back Champ, I’m glad you are ok. I’m not gonna give you the F word back because your son is my friend and I cannot say bad words to his father, tell him I said what’s up he is the man.”
Topuria responded: “Don’t bring my son into this. You being his friend has nothing to do with me and you. You know exactly why I said what I said. So don’t hide behind him. F*** you still stands.”
Now Gaethje, 37, has responded to Topuria’s claim while speaking to Joy Of Everything.
Although he initially said, “No, no, [I don’t have any comment]. I’m just enjoying being the champ,” he added when pressed on the matter: “People don’t believe that, people don’t believe that. I’ve done that to everybody’s face that I’ve fought.”
When asked whether he would fight Topuria again, the American said: “We’ll see, time will tell. Am I willing to? I just beat the s*** out of him, of course I would.”
And when asked whether he believed that Topuria’s comment was a way of angling for a rematch, Gaethje simply said: “That’s not the way to do it.”
Last week, UFC commentator Jon Anik suggested that Gaethje vs Topuria 2 was the likeliest next fight for each man.
“If you have Ilia Topuria, as a fight promoter, would you not want to maybe think about putting him back in a championship setting, given how big UFC Freedom 250 was?” Anik said, referencing the White House card. “I think there’s strong consideration there.
“I don’t know what Ilia Topuria’s timeline is, but my non-informed speculation – and I don’t know how you feel about this – is that Gaethje vs Topuria 2, a rematch, would be absolutely enormous. And predictively, that’s what I think is going to happen.”
Also last week, Gaethje told former UFC champion Demetrious Johnson that Topuria was “very easy to predict” in the cage.
“He never changes rhythm with his feet,” said the “Highlight”. “It’s always pop, pop, pop, pop, and it’s forwards or backwards. He’s very rarely moving lateral, and that’s how he fights.
“So ultimately, it’s about timing his feet and interrupting. The gameplan was to interrupt his feet, especially when it’s so constant. It’s very easy to predict, and I’ve never seen him alter from that, start to move lateral and start to not be forward or backwards.”
