On June 14, at the White House South Lawn, Aleksandre Topuria had to step in and save his brother from further punishment at the hands of Justin Gaethje. While Ilia Topuria lost his title and was left nursing a serious injury, the damage went beyond that. The loss took away the status and the reputation he had enjoyed as the UFC’s “King” and one of its biggest superstars. Topuria wants to get it back somehow. But there’s a reason that opportunity may remain out of reach.

“This rematch will never happen, and I agree with him—his brother saved his life,” Gaethje’s manager, Ali Abdelaziz, reportedly wrote. “It’s very hard to come back from the trauma of a fight like that. I’ve seen Justin do this to many people, and coming back wasn’t easy for them. Wishing him the best of luck.”

Abdelaziz was likely referring to the damage Gaethje inflicted on Dustin Poirier. The pair met on July 29, 2023, at UFC 291 for the BMF Title. Gaethje dropped Poirier with a roundhouse kick in the second round, ending the fight.

Although Poirier subsequently bounced back with a win over Benoit Saint Denis, he never fully recovered his momentum. He then suffered back-to-back losses to Islam Makhachev and later Max Holloway, eventually leading to his retirement.

Though Abdelaziz seems to have deleted the post, his analogy appears to stem from a recent interview Topuria gave to One on Oner MMA.

Offering a detailed account of the events that unfolded during the White House headliner, when Gaethje’s brutal assault forced his brother Alexandre Topuria to intervene and stop the fight in the fourth round, Ilia Topuria expressed interest in a potential rematch with the lightweight champion.

“I would love it. Why not?” he said. “I want to have my rematch. And it’s going to happen at some point. He’s talking about retirement and all that, but it was the biggest moment in his lifetime: to fight against me, to fight in the White House.

“Whenever he’s going to remember the biggest moment in his life, for sure it’s going to be the fight that we had. And the most amount of money that he made in his life also was against me, and I don’t think that he’s going to retire without one more paycheck. Because he’s not going to have that paycheck with any other guy as an opponent…It’s gonna be a huge fight….”

Topuria reportedly launched an online poll asking fans who he should fight next—Gaethje or Pimblett. Later, he tagged Dana White in an Instagram story displaying the poll results, with 55% of voters favoring a rematch with Gaethje.

However, Topuria’s optimism runs into resistance from Abdelaziz and perhaps many others.

Ilia Topuria is calling for a runback, but team Gaethje isn’t listening

Gaethje’s team likely believes that his June 14 victory was decisive. It leaves Gaethje with little else to prove. According to them, there’s zero incentive to risk an immediate rematch with a former champion whom Gaethje completely dismantled when he can instead focus on matchups against rising stars like Arman Tsarukyan.

According to Abdelaziz, the decision to pursue a rematch isn’t Topuria’s to make.

“He doesn’t call the shots,” he told Submission Radio in September. “Only one guy in the past did that, and his name is Conor McGregor, and he’s not Conor McGregor.

“Nobody is. He was a favorite because everybody thought he was better than Justin. I believe Justin Gaethje will beat him nine out of 10 times. You know why? Justin has his number. I don’t think he can beat Justin Gaethje.”

Abdelaziz had previously invoked McGregor’s name while dismantling the prospect of a rematch with his biggest client, former lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov.

“He’s in the past; we’ve just moved on,” he told ESPN’s Brett Okamoto in 2018. “Right now he’s zero; he has no value. We don’t care about him. He can move on and enjoy his life and enjoy his family, but he should be ashamed of himself for everything.”

Perhaps the most telling assessment came from Gaethje himself.

“I think he should go down,” Gaethje said, shutting down any possibility of a rematch with Topuria. “I think he can beat [Alexander] Volkanovski and be champion at featherweight. I don’t think he’ll ever be a champion at lightweight. He can’t beat Arman [Tsarukyan]. He’s going to have a difficult time with Paddy [Pimblett]. There’s a bunch of dogs.”

Although there have been reports of managers discouraging rematches, the evidence remains sketchy.

Following his knockout win over Ben Askram, Masvidal himself publicly showed little interest in a rematch. Claims that Malki Kawa made that decision on financial grounds remain unverified.

Similarly, McGregor’s pursuit of other high-profile opportunities after defeating Jose also is clear. But there is insufficient evidence that McGregor’s manager actively blocked a second fight.

In light of that history, it is notable that in the past, Gaethje has previously been open to rematches rather than shutting them down. But then the circumstances were also different.

In Topuria’s case, Gaethje claimed a decisive victory. This contrasts with his rematch with Poirier, which came after Gaethje had suffered a loss to him in their April 2018 bout.

Although Gaethje was never able to secure a rematch with Charles Oliveira, who defeated him at UFC 274, or Michael Chandler, whom he faced at UFC 2368, he reportedly was never shy about expressing interest in facing either again.

In that light, perhaps this rematch is so important to Topuria because he has never previously had to seek one after suffering a defeat. Gaethje handed him his first professional loss, and this is what likely continues to bother the Georgian-Spanish fighter.