"He will never fight again in the UFC" - Ali Abdelaziz believes Justin Gaethje will retire if Paddy Pimblett gets this fight

Ali Abdelaziz spoke on a range of topics on the latest episode of Submission Radio. The MMA manager deals with some of the biggest fighters on the planet with one of them being Justin Gaethje.

There’s been a lot of speculation on when Gaethje’s next fight will be. ‘The Highlight’ last fought Rafael Fiziev at UFC 313 and is keen on facing Ilia Topuria, the UFC lightweight champion.

However, Paddy Pimblett has also been linked to a fight with Topuria. Abdelaziz was asked about who could be next for the champion, and the MMA manager provided an interesting update.

Abdelaziz claimed that Gaethje should be the one facing Topuria. The manager added that Gaethje would retire from the promotion if Pimblett got the jump on him.

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“I am telling you this. Justin Gaethje never breaks his word. If he gets jumped by Paddy, he will retire, and he will never fight again in the UFC. I truly believe that.”

Abdelaziz added that he didn’t have any issues with Pimblett but claimed that Gaethje had done UFC several favours, and that on merit, it was ‘The Highlight’ that deserved a shot at gold.

Watch Abdelaziz speak about Gaethje in the video below (from 7:45):

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Justin Gaethje wants to face Ilia Topuria at the White House

Justin Gaethje also spoke on the subject recently. The American discussed his future plans on his YouTube channel and wanted to fight Topuria at the UFC White House card.

Gaethje initially was keen on a fight in January but that seems to be out of the window. The best chance of the pair meeting, according to him, is at the White House card which takes place in June 2026.

“My next fight, I’m planning on fighting whenever Ilia Topuria is fighting. I was hoping we’d fight him in January, but I can’t see that happening now. The biggest question is, when is Ilia fighting again? I don’t know the answer to that…Best case scenario now is they put us on the White House card.”

Gaethje has fought twice for the UFC lightweight title but has never been able to get the gold. He did hold the BMF title before Max Holloway took that away from him with a crazy KO at UFC 300.

Edited by Saiyed Adeem Karim