Becoming a two-weight champion has been the goal of many great fighters, but it wasn’t a reality for one dominant champion.
As the long-time manager of the likes of Khabib Nurmagomedov and Islam Makhachev, Ali Abdelaziz has been involved in some of the biggest fights of all time.
In 2025 alone, he’ll play a significant part in some of the most important matchups of the year, whether it’s Makhachev’s move to welterweight to challenge Jack Della Maddalena or Magomed Ankalaev’s rematch with Alex Pereira.
The UFC may have built a reputation for giving fans the fights they want to see but sometimes, like in the case of Jon Jones vs Tom Aspinall, the pieces don’t fall into place.
This can happen for a whole host of reasons and in some rare instances, it’s the relationship between two fighters that stops them from competing inside the Octagon.
- READ MORE: Khabib Nurmagomedov’s manager reveals Dana White warning that stopped him from joining UFC 229 brawl
Ali Abdelaziz names Kamaru Usman vs Israel Adesanya as the fight he wishes he could’ve made
In a recent appearance on the Pound 4 Pound podcast, Ali Abdelaziz was asked what the one fight is that he’s particularly disappointed about never being able to make happen.
For example, fans always speculated about the prospect of seeing the great Georges St-Pierre return to the Octagon to see if he could be the man to end Khabib Nurmagomedov’s undefeated run.
Abdelaziz surprisingly didn’t name Nurmagomedov against ‘GSP’ as the one that comes to mind when he reflects on missed opportunities.
In fact, his fight that got away concerns the former champion who asked him the question on the podcast, Kamaru Usman.
Usman defended the welterweight title five times but there was never any serious talk of him potentially moving up to middleweight to fight for a second belt.
That’s because for the vast majority of his reign, the champion at the weight class above was his good friend Israel Adesanya.
“You want to be honest? You versus Israel Adesanya,” Abdelaziz admitted. “I’m just being honest. I love Israel… He really is a good human being, you cannot take that away from him. But, the way I looked at it was like this. It was not about money.
“It had nothing to do with money. Israel went and he fought at light heavyweight, he got his shot. I was like, why can I not get my brother, the guy that I love who is my best friend, to go fight at middleweight.
Ali Abdelaziz claims that the UFC also wanted Kamaru Usman to fight Israel Adesanya
Ali Abdelaziz went on to reveal why the fight didn’t happen despite him pushing for it and talking about it publicly.
He also claimed that the UFC were behind the matchup but Kamaru Usman was the one who had the final say in turning it down.
“I’m not going to say who is going to win or lose, I just want him, he could have had this but listen to me, UFC wanted this. Kamaru went against it and this is honest to God the truth. The only reason this fight didn’t happen is because Kamaru didn’t allow it to happen.”
Abdelaziz added that the fight would’ve made them both a lot of money and that if he’d been able to, he believes Usman could’ve found success at both middleweight and light heavyweight when he was in his prime.