Justin Gaethje and Rafael Fiziev have rekindled their rivalry after remarks made by Fiziev regarding an eye poke in their fight.
"Ataman" was interviewed on January 30, where he discredited Gaethje's victory by alleging that an eye poke swung the fight in his favor:
"[Gaethje] ran away from me for two rounds. He started to win only after an eye poke," Fiziev explained in an interview with The Allstar. ".... I couldn't see anything with my right eye. He fought good only after the eye poke and round three when I started to get tired."
Gaethje responded to Fiziev's claims on X, explaining that it's "not a good look" for the Kazakh fighter:
"Not a good look here," Gaethje replied. "I hit him so hard he forgot which eye got poked. Your right eye got torched by my right hand kid."
"The Highlight" followed up, explaining that he believes Fiziev is "making a mistake" by focusing on their fight:
"He's very talented," Gaethje explained. "I think he is making a mistake in not looking forward to the future which can be very promising for him. I'm surprised he is saying this as it was clearly the other eye."
Gaethje's majority decision victory over Fiziev was highly contentious at the time, with many scoring the bout in favor of Fiziev. "Ataman" now deals with his first back-to-back losses of his career since losing by injury to Mateusz Gamrot in 2023.
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