Is Ali Abdelaziz trying to sabotage his own client, Justin Gaethje?

Bloodyelbow.com

On Monday there was talk about a potential summer showdown between Conor McGregor and Justin Gaethje. On Tuesday, Gaethje’s manager, Ali Abdelaziz took aim at the rumor and blasted it apart.

Ali Abdelaziz✔@AliAbdelaziz00

This rumor about @Justin_Gaethje fighting vs @TheNotoriousMMA is absolutely false. He had the opportunity to fight him already instead of cowboy but he didn’t. Justin is the number one contender and like khabib said. Conor needs to win 10 fights.2,404 5:35 AM – Feb 26, 2020 Twitter Ads info and privacy 1,275 people are talking about this

The timing of Abdelaziz’s tweet was puzzling. A few days ago, Gaethje teamed up with UFC bantamweight champion Henry Cejudo to make a video where Gaethje calls for a fight against McGregor.

‘Triple C,’ the man is not going to fight me,” Gaethje said in the video. “What the f—k do you gotta do? He’s running out of easy fights. I’m sitting here smoking my CBD, waiting for a motherf—ker to punch me in the face. Let’s go. Quit being a p—sy.”

“Damn, there you go, McGregor,” Cejudo added. “Sign the contract.”

That was far from the first time Gaethje asked for a fight against McGregor. The former WSOF lightweight champ had McGregor in his sights as far back as June 2017 when he told the UFC Unfiltered podcast, “He’ll out talk me, that’s for damn sure but he ain’t gonna outwork me. His skill set is special, he’s got a great left hand. But we’ve seen him quit. He’s got quit in his heart and once a quitter, always a quitter.”

Gaethje didn’t make his UFC debut until July 2017, so it’s clear he’s always coveted a scrap against the former two-division UFC champ. To have his manager pooh-pooh the idea of the fight finally happening almost as soon as the potential matchup had been reported is a head-scratcher.

There are a few things to address from Abdelaziz’s tweet. The first is Gaethje is not the No. 1 contender. That’s Tony Ferguson, who faces current lightweight titleholder Khabib Nurmagomedov — another Abdelaziz client — in April in the main event of UFC 249.

Another thing to ponder is if Abdelaziz is trying to play hardball with the UFC and potentially negotiate a better deal for his client for a McGregor bout. The problem with that is the UFC holds all the cards. The promotion knows it doesn’t have to hand out sweet deals for fighters to face McGregor. If the UFC offered the same fight to Dustin Poirier or Dan Hooker, the odds are good they would accept the matchup in a heartbeat, which would leave Gaethje out in the cold.

Maybe Abdelaziz is angling to get Gaethje a fight against the winner of the Nurmagomedov vs. Ferguson matchup, but again, that’s a risky proposition. If the McGregor vs. Gaethje fight does not come to fruition and McGregor fights and gets a win over another opponent, it’s almost a lock that McGregor will get the next shot at the UFC title. Again, that leaves Gaethje outside looking in.

There is no scenario where it makes sense for Gaethje to turn down an opportunity to face McGregor this summer. If the deal crosses Abdelaziz’s desk for that fight, the manager should immediately get it to his client and have him sign it. If that doesn’t happen, that’s managerial malpractice and Gaethje needs to cut ties with Abdelaziz and find himself a new manager, which shouldn’t be hard for Gaethje.