Khabib Turns Down Georges St-Pierre And Floyd Mayweather Fights
Although he has reiterated time and time again that he isn’t interested in fighting anymore, former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov continues to receive lucrative offers.
Khabib retired from MMA after successfully defending his lightweight title against Justin Gaethje last October at UFC 254. He didn’t vacate his title until February though, when the UFC finally made his retirement official. ‘The Eagle’ has been linked to a super fight with Georges St-Pierre for several years. However, as time has gone on, the fight has become less and less likely to materialise.
GSP vs Khabib?
Speaking on the Hotboxin’ With Mike Tyson podcast (as transcribed by Bloody Elbow), Ali Abdelaziz said that Dana White approached Team Khabib recently about coming out of retirement to fight Georges St-Pierre.
“Ten days ago, Dana White called me. And he said, ‘Georges St-Pierre, he said he will fight Khabib. Non-title fight, 165 pounds.’ But in a way, we’ve been waiting for Georges… I like Georges. He’s my friend,” Abdelaziz said.
“We’ve been waiting for Georges for four or five years. ‘I’m coming, I’m not coming.’ At the end of the day, the UFC wanted to make him fight at lightweight. He went on to welterweight. Khabib was the lightweight champion. But now he said, ‘Hey, Khabib’s retired, I’m retired, what about coming back [to] fight Khabib now?’”
Abdelaziz continued by saying that he doesn’t want to see St-Pierre return to fight Khabib, as he feels his man would be too much to handle for the former two division UFC champion.
“To be honest, as a human, I don’t want to see Georges St-Pierre in this… He’s 40 years old today,” Abdelaziz said. “It’s his birthday. Khabib is a… the man wrestled bears, alligators, and lions. They both have the same game, but Khabib is much younger, more ferocious. I don’t think it will be even a fair fight.”
Ali Abdelaziz Offers GSP An Alternative
Instead, Abdelaziz has suggested that St-Pierre fight the reigning UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman, who competes in the same weight class that GSP dominated for years.
“The pound-for-pound king right now, ‘The Nigerian Nightmare’ Kamaru Usman,” Abdelaziz said. “The man never lost a fight in the UFC, never got touched in the UFC, he smashed everybody. If [GSP] wants to come back and fight somebody ‘invincible’ like he wants, hey. They’re the same weight. Georges St-Pierre can come back, fight Kamaru Usman. I’ll be more than happy, the UFC will be more than happy, and it will be such a huge fight.
“I think Georges is also smart. [He saw how Usman] dismantled Jorge Masvidal. And Georges, does he want to get hurt, get knocked out like that at this age of his life? Maybe not.”
$100 Million Boxing Offer
After Khabib submitted Conor McGregor at UFC 229, talks of a potential boxing match with Floyd Mayweather began to surface.
According to Abdelaziz, Khabib was recently offered $100 million to compete against Mayweather in a boxing match, but he also turned it down.
“Khabib got offered $100 million after he’s retired to fight Floyd Mayweather,” Abdelaziz said. “$100 million. You can ask Floyd, you can ask everybody, and Khabib said, ‘No. I’m retired. I told my mother I’m retired. I’m gonna keep my word to my mother. If my mother told me to fight again, maybe I will. But right now, she told me not to fight.’”
Would you be interested in seeing Khabib Nurmagomedov return against Georgles St-Pierre, Floyd Mayweather, or Kamaru Usman?
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