Khabib Nurmagomedov shocked the world by retiring from MMA following his victory at UFC 254. However, Dana White is still holding out hope that the Dagestani may yet fight again. White has stated that the fight he is most interested in making is the rematch with Irish superstar Conor McGregor.
It is small wonder that this is White’s hope, with the first fight selling over 2,400,000 PPV buys, a record for MMA. However, White will have to rely on McGregor defeating the gritty Dustin Poirier in January for this to come about.
BJPENN reported on a recent interview from Shout! The Buffalo Football Podcast on Nyup which featured the UFC president. Upon being asked about the future for McGregor should he defeat Poirier he stated that:
“In a perfect world, if Conor wins this fight, I would love to see the rematch with him and Khabib. It’s the biggest fight that can be made, and it’s the fight that makes sense.” He continued to state to hosts Matt Parrino & Ryan Talbot, that “When I fly out there, Khabib is going to be there, too. So, I’m going to meet with Khabib while I’m there”
Khabib won their first encounter emphatically, forcing Conor to tap in the fourth round. However there are multiple reports that McGregor’s training camp was entrenched in a level of chaos and instability rarely seen at the top level of any sport. Since then McGregor has restructured his whole training regime, according to an interview with Owen Roddy from the TheMacLife. Roddy remarks that they were now training “twice a day,” having also moved out to “Shinobi,” a mixed martial arts academy based out of Portugal. With this regimented training regime, the SBG team seem certain that Conor is not the man who once walked out to face Khabib at the T-Mobile arena.
Should McGregor defeat Poirier, Dana seems convinced that he will be able to coax Khabib back for one more. However Khabib has repeatedly stated that he has no interest in rematches.
Do you think Dana White will convince Khabib Nurmagomedov to rematch Conor McGregor?