For Georges St-Pierre, seeking a fight with Khabib Nurmagomedov was never about adding another championship to his collection. But he understands why the UFC opted not to book the matchup, regardless.
Former two-division UFC champion St-Pierre (26-2 MMA, 20-2 UFC) had previously expressed interest in facing UFC lightweight champion Nurmagomedov (28-0 MMA, 12-0 UFC), but the promotion was never on board.
St-Pierre returned after an almost four-year layoff in 2017, and defeated Michael Bisping to capture the UFC middleweight title. However, he vacated the title shortly after and retired from competition once again.
As a result of that move, St-Pierre thinks the UFC likely didn’t want to book the Nurmagomedov fight, considering that he would have no intention of defending the title if he won. But, St-Pierre says, fighting Nurmagomedov was never about the belt. It was about competing with the best.
“I know Khabib wanted to have that fight, I want it, but the thing is, if you look from the UFC’s side, I think it’s normal if I put myself in their shoes,” St-Pierre told ESPN. “They didn’t want to take the risk of me winning the title and then after vacating again. I didn’t even want it for the title, I would rather do it not for a title. For me, it was because I considered Khabib, right now, the best fighter in the world, and he wanted to fight me as well so I thought it was a good fan fight.”
Instead of a super fight with St-Pierre, the UFC booked Nurmagomedov to face Conor McGregor in Las Vegas in October 2018, then Dustin Poirier in Abu Dhabi in September 2019 as the undefeated Russian retained his lightweight belt with a pair of submission finishes.
“They had other plans for Khabib and I understand that,” said St-Pierre. “They had a lot to lose and if they invest into that fight and their investment goes out after, it’s not a good move.
“In a way, I could take that as a compliment because maybe they saw me as a threat for them. That means maybe they thought I could win the fight. If they let me fight him, it’s because they think I would have lost. So that’s why.”
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