Rafael Fiziev’s eyes are already set on his next target; he’s gunning for the top of the lightweight division.
The Kyrgyz powerhouse proposed a scrap with Justin Gaethje following his fifth-round stoppage of veteran Rafael Dos Anjos at UFC Vegas 58.
“I want a fight with Gaethje, like for real,” Fiziev told media members in his post-fight interview. “If you want to fight, one more guy with yellow hairs, we need to know who’s the best for you and for me… If you’re ready, if you’re not scared, if you don’t take shit, let’s go.”
Today, the 29-year-old took to social media and pressed the matter further. He challenged Gaejthe to deny the fight in a public setting – implying ‘The Highlight’ turned the challenge down privately.
The AllStar MMA roundup
- Road to UFC: Tournament semifinal round in the works for October 23: Sources
- The AllStar MMA Live: UFC Vegas 58 Reaction, Recap with Dan Hooker
- UFC Long Island: Jingliang Li wants to submit Muslim Salikhov – “This time we can find out on the ground”
The best of the rest
- ‘He won fair and square’ – RDA doesn’t feel ref stopped Fiziev fight early at UFC Vegas 58 – BloodyElbow.com
- Ian Garry reacts to Conor McGregor praise, wants to share card with Irish legend – MMAFighting.com
- Israel Adesanya dissects Sean Strickland’s KO loss to Alex Pereira: ‘He should’ve listened to me’ – MMAJunkie.com
- Why David Onama is upset by Austin Lingo’s withdrawal from UFC on ESPN 39, doubts he’ll accept rebooking – MMAJunkie.com
- Georges St-Pierre adds Khamzat Chimaev to list of fighters he’d ‘hunt’ to be the best – MMAMania.com
The Call
Here are the lines for this weekend’s UFC main event as they currently stand.
Markets presented by Crypto sports book Cloudbet:
Yair Rodriguez (13-3) vs Brian Ortega (15-2)
The soapbox
The baddest man on the planet is now fluent with elbows:
A case of mistaken identity:
Gas prices are too much, even for Sugar Sean:
Highly touted prospect Muhammad Mokaev gearing up for his second UFC appearance:
Paulo Costa and his secret juice:
Caio unhappy with his overall performance:
A new chapter for Jessica Eye:
JRC sets her goal for recovery:
The morning view
Shane Burgos breaks down this weekends UFC main event:
Freestyle MMA’s Justin Van Heerden previews his upcoming fight, talks on UFC goals:
Fight Analyst The Weasle details Rafael Fiziev’s knockout of RDA:
Refresh yourself with some of Alex Pereira’s best KOs from his kickboxing career:
Done deals
This week
- Giga Chikadze to fight Sodiq Yusuff at September 17th UFC event (per UFC)
- Tanner Boser to fight Rodrigo Nascimento at September 17th UFC event (per MMA Fighting)
On this day in MMA…
On July 11th, 2015, Conor McGregor stopped Chad Mendes with punches in the second round of their UFC 189 headline bout, winning the interim UFC featherweight championship title; his first belt inside the promotion.
This, McGregor’s first PPV main event, sold 825,000 buys and ranks as his lowest-grossing pay-per-view on record – and the only time the superstar has attracted less than 1 million buys.