Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweight king Islam
Makhachev doubled down on his claims of having accepted a fight
against Ilia
Topuria.

Topuria is scheduled to defend his lightweight title against
interim champion Justin
Gaethje in the
UFC White House: Freedom 250 main event on Sunday. According to
reports, the original plan was for Topuria to challenge Makhachev
for the welterweight title.

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Topuria (17-0) initially blamed Makhachev (28-1) for the matchup
falling through. Even Dana White said that Makhachev was out with a
hand injury. However, Makhachev has thoroughly denied being injured
or turning down a fight against Topuria. Makhachev recently
reiterated that he had accepted the offer without any hesitation.
However, Makhachev’s manager, Ali Abdelaziz, called him the very
next day to inform that the booking was off. Makhachev claims
negotiations failed when Topuria’s manager, Malki Kawa, demanded an
insane fight purse. The Dagestani champ also notes that Kawa had
himself admitted turning down the fight due to inadequate pay.

“I can show you the chats with my manager… He called me, ‘The White
House event, a fight against Topuria.’ And I said, ‘Let’s go,’
right away,” Makhachev told Red Corner MMA. “I didn’t even ask for
it, but Ali said that the pay would be higher because it was the
White House. And I said, ‘It’s even better.’ But the next day he
called me and said, ‘It’s cancelled.’ I said, ‘Why, what went
wrong?’ And he told me that [Topuria] asked for some insane money.
And that was it… His manager himself said it in an interview, ‘The
money we were offered for the fight was not enough, so we turned it
down.’… Ilia may say whatever he wants, but it was his manager
who negotiated.”

Kawa said that they had initially chosen Makhachev over Gaethje.
However, Kawa claims the money offered wasn’t enough for a booking
as big as Makhachev.

IMAK ADMIN

By IMAK ADMIN

Internationaler Kampfkunst und Kampfsport Kleinanzeiger