Beat Poirier, Face St-Pierre In Late 2019

After the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) agreed to lessen the suspensions of two of Khabib Nurmagomedov’s teammates for their part in the UFC 229 post-fight brawl (details here), the chances of “The Eagle” defending his Lightweight title against Dustin Poirier at UFC 242 on Sept. 7, 2019 in Abu Dhabi have increased.

That’s according to Khabib’s manager Ali Abdelaziz, who tells ESPN that the deal is close to getting done and fight fans should be expecting some good news rather soon. If that weren’t enough, Ali dropped another juicy nugget by saying that if the stars align, Nurmagomedov could be facing Georges St-Pierre before the year is out.

Seriously.

I asked Khabib’s manager Ali Abdelaziz how close the Poirier fight in Abu Dhabi is, after NSAC shortened his teammates’ suspensions today. “We are close. Good news coming very soon … And if all goes to plan, I think Khabib will fight Georges St-Pierre at the end of the year.”

Georges St-Pierre retired earlier this year after his constant efforts to score a fight against Khabib fell through. But as we’ve seen in the past, “Rush” isn’t afraid to cut his retirement short if given the chance to make more history.

Should Nurmagomedov defeat Poirier and St-Pierre get the next crack at “The Eagle,” Georges will have the opportunity to become the first man ever to win three different UFC titles in as many weight classes, already collecting the Welterweight and Middleweight titles prior.

Assuming Georges can make the cut down to 155 pounds, of course.

Still, there are several moving pieces that need to line up perfectly before anything of this magnitude goes down. That said, NSAC gave UFC a big assist by cutting Team Khabib a little bit of slack.