Malki Kawa Rips Ali Abdelaziz: 'Topuria Would Annihilate Your Roster'

Manager beef doesn't usually move divisions, but Malki Kawa is happy to talk like it does. Ilia Topuria's rep fired back at rival agent Ali Abdelaziz this week, insisting his client — now 17-1 in the UFC after losing his lightweight title to Justin Gaethje in June — would tear through the entire 155-pound roster. That includes a rematch with Gaethje, who took the belt with a fourth-round TKO at the White House event and now sits atop the division at 28-5.

The flashpoint was a recent Pound 4 Pound podcast episode, hosted by Abdelaziz clients Kamaru Usman and Henry Cejudo. On it, Abdelaziz talked up PFL star Usman Nurmagomedov as a lightweight who'd come to the UFC and clean out the field, Topuria included. Kawa's response, delivered in a social media video, was blunt: he told Abdelaziz to stop the bold predictions and dismissed the hype as clown talk.

Kawa's Case for Topuria

Kawa's argument leans on the idea that Topuria was the better fighter on the night and simply had a bad one. He congratulated Gaethje's team on the win but claimed a second meeting flips the result. In his telling, Topuria remains the No. 1 fighter in the world regardless of the L on his record — a stance that ignores the scoreboard but not the résumé. Before Gaethje, Topuria had never tasted defeat, mixing seven knockouts with eight submissions across his 18-fight career.

The subtext is the usual manager-vs-manager needling. Kawa accused Abdelaziz of ducking a Topuria matchup behind the scenes while pumping up his own fighters in public. He rattled off a list of names Topuria could face on his return — Paddy Pimblett, Islam Makhachev, Nurmagomedov, Gaethje again — and promised a masterclass whenever the comeback lands.

What's Actually Next

For now, it's all noise. Gaethje and his camp are weighing options for what could be the final fight of his career, while Topuria has been sidelined healing facial injuries from the June loss. Topuria is still officially the top-ranked contender and is slated for a lightweight title fight at UFC 321 against a to-be-announced opponent.

None of that settles who's right. Managers will always sell their own guy, and Kawa's job is to keep Topuria's stock high after his first professional stumble. The only verdict that matters comes inside the cage — and until Topuria returns, the annihilation talk is exactly that. Talk.