Magomed Ankalaev’s controversial manager, Ali Abdelaziz, took to Instagram to respond to his client’s loss. During the build-up to the UFC 320 main event, there was a lot of speculation as to whether it was actually the champion who was in control of his social media, or, in fact, it was Abdelaziz who was tweeting on his behalf.
What did Ali Abdelaziz say about Magomed Ankalaev’s Loss?
Taking to Instagram, Abdelaziz posted a picture of him and Ankalaev with the caption:
“Saturday night, Magomed Ankalaev fought Alex Pereira. In the rematch, and Alex Pereira won. Congratulations to him and his team.
I know his coaches, managers, and always show them respect. I don’t know Alex personally. But, I am Team Magomed Ankalaev. Whatever I can do to help him, I will do it. As long as I don’t insult someone’s family, religion, or his nation. Everything Ankalaev said on his social media, he approved it. And if I did help him, it was his knowledge.
But, at the end of the day, we are in a fighting business. As long as no one speaks about you in a bad way, or your family, or your nation.
About me doing sports or not doing sports, this is irrelevant. But, I have two black belts in Judo and Jiu-Jitsu under Master Renzo Gracie. And I also competed in Judo and MMA. But, in reality, this is not about me and Alex. This is about Magomed Ankalaev and Alex. Alex was the best man on Saturday night. And we take our losses like men. We move on. I don’t have any problems with Alex. I respect everything he accomplished.
There’s a lot of things happened with Ankalaev in his camp. But, it’s for him to talk about. Not me. And if I need to talk about it, I will talk about it. If it was up to me, he should never have fought due to some things. But he’s a grown man, he makes his own decisions, and he lives by his actions.
Congratulations to Alex and his team. And for all the sorry-ass fan, every time somebody from the Caucasus region, or the Middle East, Dagestan, Chechnya, get a UFC title, they all freak out. You win some and you lose some. That’s part of this game. Alhumdullalah for everything.i.”
Dissecting the Statement
Two main things stand out from Abdelaziz’s statement.
Firstly, Magomed Ankalaev’s coach seems to suggest that he was injured going into the fight. Whilst he didn’t say that specifically, he stated that he would have preferred Ankalaev to have pulled out of the fight, however, as we know, this didn’t happen.
If, in fact he was injured, it would make sense. He didn’t seem his usual self, this was arguably due to the front foot pressure of Poatan, however, it could be an excuses as to why he didn’t show up in the loss.
He also addressed Ankalaev’s social media posts in the build-up to the Pereira fight, which Abdelaziz suggested that ‘if I did help him, it was his knowledge’, which implies that he was the one posting to Ankalaev’s socials.