Andrew Tate has accused former opponent Ibrahim El Boustati of feeding off of his success after he labelled the internet celebrity as "fake".
Tate took on El Boustati in a world title fight in 2016, but the fight was stopped within minutes after 'Cobra' made the referee aware of an eye injury after the Dutchman landed several hard strikes. Tate went on to compete in three further kickboxing matches in Romania, before having a comeback fight in 2020, but his fight against El Boustati was his last at world title level.
El Boustati questioned the extent of Tate's eye injury when speaking with Mirror Fighting last month amid rumours of his comeback against YouTube stars such as Jake and Logan Paul. El Boustati also accused Tate of "faking" the internet persona that has resulted in becoming a controversial figure in recent months, but 'Cobra' has played down his former rival's comments.
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"Well I was beating him, so why would I fake an eye injury? He is desperate for clout because I was on the path to destroying him, I was beating him and unfortunately had an eye injury," Tate told Mirror Fighting. "Ever since he's been getting his a** kicked, he's lost to everybody. I was going to be the first man to destroy him. Now that I'm globally famous, he just wants to be said in the same sentence as me because he's a nobody. He's not a relevant individual."
El Boustati lost four of his next seven fights after beating Tate and has not competed in kickboxing for over two years. The Dutchman insisted that Tate, who thinks he would be medically cleared to fight again, lost the "only thing he ever loved" in his world title belt when they met in the ring.
"The most painful thing for him was that he lost his belt, the only thing he ever loved. He came out of retirement for me to defend the belt, he lost it in the first round to a left hook in the head, the video is out there and directly after that he was defending himself saying he already had an injury on his eye," he added.
"But when I look back, it was all a reason to protect himself for the time he's living in now so people couldn't say he's not the champion he claims to be. He blocked me on Instagram immediately, so I messaged his brother Tristan to offer a rematch and he also blocked me, so they just won't let me in their head or something."
