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Khabib Nurmagomedov’s manager, Ali Abdelaziz, is confident that if “The Eagle” defeats Dustin Poirier at the upcoming UFC 242 pay-per-view (PPV) event on Sept. 7, 2019, in Abu Dhabi, he will defend his title against Georges St-Pierre in December.
That’s not the case, according to Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) President Dana White, who claims he is not interested in giving St-Pierre – whom he likes very much – another title shot after he refused to defend the Middleweight belt after choking out Michael Bisping at UFC 217 (see it here).
“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 (via MMA Fighting). “So you can’t just come out and hand pick fights that you want for titles.”
Indeed, shortly after defeating “The Count,” St-Pierre vacated the 185-pound strap, citing his battle with colitis as the reason. But, after getting it under control, rumblings started to surface that he was interested in fighting Khabib for the 155-pound strap, much to “The Eagle’s” delight.
“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.”
Still, it is a fight that Nurmagomedov desperately wants, which could lead to a couple of sit-downs between the 155-pound king and the UFC brass. “The Eagle” just better not hold his breath.
“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,” he added.
“There’s guys backed up that want to fight in that division. You can’t come back out of retirement and hand pick 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?”
Of course, Poirier is adamant he’s going to play spoiler in a few months, perhaps making all of this obsolete.