The Rumours Continue to Swirl… Will Georges St. Pierre and Khabib Nurmagamedov Ever Fight? UFC President Dana White Has Released an Update on the Situation…
This one would be mad, wouldn’t it? The narrative is there: UFC legend and icon Georges St. Pierre returns from retirement to fight for a title in his third weight-class, against one of the most efficiently ruthless fighters of this generation, Khabib Nurmagamedov.
Both men have made it clear that they’d be interested in this fight, with Khabib’s camp actively making noises about it. There’s been talk about a lightweight clash as well as a 165lb clash. Right now though, it looks like nothing doing, which is a shame because it would be an era-defining match-up.
Now UFC President Dana White has made some revealing statements about the potential fight and it’s very clear that the promotion has yet to entirely rule it out.
Not Happening
The UFC president made a point of saying how much he loves ‘Rush’ while also basically accusing him of breaking his word. According to White, St. Pierre was supposed to defend his title if he won it. After a bout of ulcerative colitis, St. Pierre vacated the strap. Then he wanted to fight for the 155lb title. Understandably the UFC is wary of messing up one of their most stacked divisions.
“Well there’s two things — first of all, who doesn’t love Georges St-Pierre? Love Georges St-Pierre, the best ever as far as human beings, great guy, love him. Georges St-Pierre and I had a deal, he was going to fight [Michael] Bisping at 185 pounds and if he won, he would defend the title. He bailed on that. Didn’t do it,” White told TSN recently in Canada. “So you can’t just come out and hand pick fights that you want for titles.”
Broken Word
White has a lot of respect for Georges St. Pierre – after all, who doesn’t? The man is a legend of the sport and is also one of the most respectable characters involved with it. He’s never caused any controversy and was one of the most successful fighters of his era.
“He made this deal with me that he would defend the title,” White explained. “He went in and he saw Bisping as an easy fight. He fought Bisping and then you look at the guys that are behind Bisping and they’re all killers. They’re all literally killers.
“But now to come back and he wants to fight at 155 for the title. We’re not doing a goofy 165 [pound] whatever, that’s not going to happen.”
Potential
White double-downed on the point that ‘Rush’ won’t be the one who gets to pick who to fight. However, it’s very interesting that he acknowledged they would potentially follow-up on Khabib’s interests if he wanted to push for a fight with the Canadian legend. At the end of the day he’s retired anyway, but this is the fight that would bring him back.
“I guess if I get into a position where Khabib the champ wants it bad enough, we’re going to have to talk about it but at the end of the day it doesn’t make sense to me,” White said. “You have other guys lined up behind him. You’re just asking me if Tony Ferguson is going to get a shot. We’ll give you a shot after Georges St-Pierre slides in at 155 and gets his shot. Then you’ve got Conor [McGregor] who wants a rematch.
“There’s guys backed up that want to fight in that division. You can’t come back out of retirement and handpick fights that you want when you didn’t even keep your word with me on defending the 185 pound belt. Have I made that clear?”
