Ilia Topuria's manager makes wild claim about Justin Gaethje fight at UFC White House
Malki Kawa, Ilia Topuria’s manager, has explained his fighter’s performance after the Spanish-Georgian surrendered his UFC Lightweight title against Justin Gaethje at UFC Freedom 250 while also making a bold claim about the bout.
Topuria headed into the White House event on July 14 as a heavy favourite, having previously been unbeaten in his 17 mixed martial arts contests.
However, after a brutal beatdown by Gaethje, the 29-year-old quit on his stool between rounds four and five and, in doing so, lost his title.
Topuria’s face was bruised and bloodied during the fight, with both eyes severely swollen, with the fighter later saying he went blind during the contest.
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‘El Matador’ was also left with a broken nose and fractured both orbital bones in his face, although he did not require surgery as he suffered ‘non-displaced’ fractures, with the broken bones staying in the correct position rather than becoming displaced.
For several weeks, very little was known of Topuria’s condition before his strength and conditioning coach Jesus Gallo issued an update on the fighter’s health when speaking to Spanish outlet Serbero En los Deport on June 25.
“What the doctor told us was that within six to eight weeks, it should heal properly, especially because there was no displaced fracture,” he said.
“After that, for him to start wrestling again and doing things again, it’ll take a little while for it to really solidify.
“I think we’re talking about at least two to three months, easily.
“If you saw us in a rematch or another fight, it would be towards the end of the year, in December. Who knows? We’ll see.”
In late July, pictures of Topuria without sunglasses emerged showing the extent of the damage he suffered, with very little scarring or apparent injury still visible.
Meanwhile, a video and further close-up photographs showed slight redness in both eyes and a cut on the bridge of his nose.
Ilia Topuria’s manager makes bold UFC pound-for-pound claim
It remains unclear when Topuria will return to the octagon, but despite the setback, his manager Kawa still believes the fighter is one of the top three pound-for-pound competitors in recent times, putting the Gaethje defeat down to the 29-year-old simply having a bad night at the office.
Posting in response to fellow UFC fighter manager Ali Abdelaziz claiming PFL star Usman Nurmagomedov would dominate the UFC’s lightweight division, Kawa claimed: “You’ve got this guy, he’s sitting there with two of his clients, and one of them happens to be [Kamaru] Usman.
“They’re sitting there talking about his next opponent, ‘Oh yeah, he would beat this guy, he would beat that guy’, and ‘He will do this and he will do that.’ Guy, shut the f*ck up. Ilia Topuria would f*cking annihilate 100 percent of your roster, including—if he fought Gaethje again—he would f*cking beat the shit out of him.
“We all know that Ilia was better. He had a bad night. Your boy did good, congratulations. Stop hyping up the other shit. You sound like a f*cking clown. Ilia Topuria is still, in my book, the No. 1 fighter in the world.”
“I promise you guys, when the comeback comes, you will see what happens,” Kawa added.
“Paddy Pimblett, f*cking Islam, Usman [Nurmagomedov], f*cking Gaethje, it doesn’t matter who. It doesn’t matter when. You guys will see a f*cking masterclass; that’s what that is.
“But to sit here as an agent on the podcast of your clients and be like, ‘Oh yeah, you’re going to actually lose to this guy,’ because behind the scenes, you don’t want that fight.”
The UFC returns this weekend with Islam Makhachev defending his welterweight crown against Ian Machado Garry at UFC 330.
Topics: UFC, Justin Gaethje
Luke Davies