Larissa Pacheco’s manager, Alex Davis, thinks Ali Abdelaziz cheated during the PFL main event between Pacheco and Kayla Harrison.
During the fight, Abdelaziz passed through the barriers and went into a neutral corner to give Harrison advice. That, of course, is not legal and Davis is not happy with it and during the fight got the commission to stop it.
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“In this certain circumstance, people have to understand there are two corners — the red corner and the blue corner,” Davis told The MMA Hour about Abdelaziz (via MMAMania) “So, what happened there was the manager came to the neutral side and started giving instructions. There’s two problems with that. One, you’re giving her [Harrison] instructions. It’s a third corner. Second, [Pacheco] cannot hear her corner because you have someone yelling near and he was getting right up near the cage. It’s all on video, everybody sees it. This kind of stuff has to be stopped.
“He walks up blatantly and starts giving instructions from there,” Davis continued about Ali Abdelaziz. “Then I got up and told him, ‘Get back to your corner.’ Then he tells me, ‘Go f—k yourself.’ Then I went to get the official, the official went up to him, he brushed the official off, then I went and got the commissioner. All during the fight and I’m in [Pacheco’s] corner.
”With my fighters, I’m not going to permit this. I will go to war,” Davis concluded. “These people work too hard for what they do for us to take illegal advantages. Especially managers. We’re here to assist them. What’re we doing getting involved in things like that? If he was in the other corner, that’s fine.”
Alex Davis says what Ali Abdelaziz did was cheating and is something he would never do. He is also glad the commission quickly intervened but is disappointed it even got that part.
“If I may say, as a manager for 29 years, I always try to be fair. I don’t poach people, I don’t break rules, I don’t do things like that. That was blatant cheating, it was cheating, our sport can’t permit it,” Davis later added about Abdelaziz.
In the end, it was Pacheco winning a decision to hand Harrison her first loss. So, Abelaziz’s advice didn’t end up meaning much.
What do you make of Alex Davis saying Ali Abdelaziz cheated during the PFL main event?