Justin Gaethje is arguably the hottest fighter in the UFC right now after his highlight-reel knockout of Dustin Poirier, and that's why Conor McGregor is calling out the lightweight star on social media ... he's clout chasing, according to JG's manager.
TMZ Sports talked to Ali Abdelaziz days after his star client went home with the BMF belt, which he won during the main event of UFC 291. While people were in awe of Gaethje's fight-ending head kick, The Notorious wasn't one of them ... Conor quickly hit up Twitter and trashed Justin.
Justin Gaethje 🆚 Conor McGregor soon? 👀 pic.twitter.com/zM68jjfX6p
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) August 2, 2023
Just jealousy, according to Ali.
"Conor McGregor, he lost himself. He doesn't know who he is. He's a guy who isn't even a fighter. He's a retired fighter. He's not in the USADA program, he probably weighs almost close to 200 pounds. He just wants clout," Abdelaziz told us.
"Justin Gaethje's a gladiator. Dustin Poirier's a gladiator. Kamaru Usman, Islam, Max Holloway, all those guys are gladiators. He's not a gladiator anymore."
Speaking of Poirier, McGregor hasn't fought since breaking his leg against Diamond at UFC 264 in July 2021.
"Conor McGregor is a pretender right now," Abdelaziz said.
"He gets in fights in bars and at Grammy's, street fights. He gets in fights when he has security there to protect him."
Conor is/was supposed to fight Michael Chandler (who coached opposite him on TUF), but that fight hasn't yet been made, and reports indicate McGregor isn't in the USADA test pool yet, meaning he couldn't fight for at least 6 months.
Listening to Ali, it very much seems Conor and Justin is NOT going to happen. Question is, who will it be? Abdelaziz breaks it down.
We also talked to Ali, who counts fighters like Islam Makhachev, Kamaru Usman, Henry Cejudo, Kayla Harrison, and Khabib Nurmagomedov as clients, about becoming the manager to speak in front of the Association Boxing Commissions and Combative Sports (ABC) conference in Las Vegas this week.