Rafael Fiziev claims Justin Gaethje “ran away” from him in their fight, ‘The Highlight’ fires back

Rafael Fiziev says Justin Gaethje ran away from him in their UFC 286 fight last March.

Fiziev was facing Gaethje in the co-main event of the pay-per-view card in London, England in a massive fight for the lightweight division. It was a back-and-forth scrap that was very entertaining, but in the end, it was Gaethje who got his hand raised by majority decision.

Now, nearly a year after the fight, Rafael Fiziev spoke to The AllStar and claimed Justin Gaethje ran away from him in the fight.

“[Gaethje] ran away from me for 2 rounds. He started to win only after an eye poke because my eye couldn’t see anything. I couldn’t see anything with my right eye. He fought good only after the eye poke and round 3 when I started to get tired,” Fiziev said.

Following Fiziev’s comments, Gaethje took to X to issue a fiery response back as ‘The Highlight’ wasn’t happy with Fiziev claiming he ran away from him.

Not a good look here. I hit him so hard he forgot which eye got poked. Your right eye got torched by my right hand kid. https://t.co/43alvo2m6R

— Justin Gaethje 🇺🇸 (@Justin_Gaethje) January 31, 2024

“Not a good look here. I hit him so hard he forgot which eye got poked. Your right eye got torched by my right hand kid,” Gaethje wrote.

In the fight, Justin Gaethje outstruck Rafael Fiziev 54-to-38 in significant strikes in the final round, while also appearing to hurt him in the final round which was good enough to get a 10-8 scorecard by one judge. The other rounds will also be competitive in strike totals, which is why Gaethje is annoyed by Fiziev’s comments accusing ‘The Highlight’ of running from him in the fight.

Regardless of Fiziev’s comments, Gaethje did enough to get the win in the judges’ eyes which is all that matters.

Since the win, Justin Gaethje went out and scored a second-round KO win over Dustin Poirier in July to become the BMF champion. He will now be defending that belt at UFC 300 against former UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway.

Rafael Fiziev, meanwhile, lost his next fight as he tore his knee in a main event fight against Mateusz Gamrot in September. Since then, he has been rehabbing his knee and there is no word on who or when he will fight again.