After meeting with Khabib Nurmagomedov, UFC President Dana White will announce ‘The Eagle’’s decision regarding his retirement live on ABC.
Today at 3PM, live on ABC and during UFC Fight Island 7: Holloway vs. Kattar, UFC President Dana White will make a special announcement regarding Khabib Nurmagomedov.
White revealed this earlier on twitter, stating that he met with Nurmagomedov last night and that later on today he will “talk about his decision and how it’s going to impact the Poirier-McGregor fight next weekend and the co-main event in the lightweight division.”
Yesterday White met Nurmagomedov at a UAE Warrior event that paid tribute to Nurmagomedov’s late father Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov. ‘The Eagle’, who announced his retirement after beating Justin Gaethje in October, has shown little signs of eagerness to go back on his plans, but White has continually insisted that he would try and change his mind.
When Nurmagomedov beat Gaethje, he improved his stellar record to 29-0 and solidified his place on the top of the UFC’s pound-for-pound rankings. The Dagestani said this is all he needed before calling it a career.
However, Nurmagomedov’s father—who was also his first coach—had previously said his hope was to see his son reach 30-0, with a win over former UFC middleweight and welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre.
Recently St-Pierre spoke about how exciting a potential fight with Nurmagomedov would be. However, the Canadian hasn’t hinted very heavily that he is considering a return to action.
If Nurmagomedov has held steadfast in his position it is likely that White’s announcement will be concerned with the fate of the UFC lightweight title. If the belt is vacated we could see the headliner for UFC 257, Conor McGregor vs. Dustin Poirier 2 be for the championship.
However, with White saying he would talk about the ‘co-main event’, too, he might be referring to Michael Chandler vs. Dan Hooker as either a number one contender fight or one half of a mini-tournement along with McGregor vs. Poirier 2.
A number of possibilities are on the table (none of which seem to feature poor Charles Oliveira), but we’ll just have to wait to see what White has in store.