Daniel Cormier wasn’t surprised to see UFC president Dana White suggest Khabib Nurmagomedov could return.
Nurmagomedov announced his retirement from the sport following his win over Justin Gaethje at UFC 254 last month. “The Eagle” notably revealed he promised his mother that it would be his last fight following the death of his father Abdulmanap.
However, White recently revealed that Nurmagomedov could return to action and look to go 30-0 as that’s what his late father wanted for him.
Nothing is confirmed for now, but as far as Cormier is concerned, White is doing what is expected of him. That said, he still expects Nurmagomedov to stick to his word.
“The only thing I said to Khabib was, ‘Brother, you have the shortest retirement in history. You retired for three days!’” Cormier joked on DC & Helwani (via MMA Fighting). “We didn’t get much into it. We laughed about it a little bit but you know what, I think that if you’re Dana White, you’re saying what you need to. Hope that that is what Khabib wants to do.
“I think if you’re Dana White and the UFC, you’re hopeful that’s what Khabib wants to do, but like I said last week, if Khabib Nurmagomedov gives his word, generally that’s a fact. Now, would I be surprised with the economic impact that a fight he could have could bring that could bring him back? No, and I would not judge him for that if he came back. He’s 32 years old for God’s sake and he can still beat everybody in the world. But there are things that if he says it’s his word, I take him at that.”
It might be hope from White, but he has also taken the step of not stripping Nurmagomedov of the lightweight title or booking a vacant title fight for that matter.
For Cormier, that’s the smart thing to do and speaks to the value of having “The Eagle” as the champion.
“Now that’s smart,” Cormier said. “I think that’s smart and that speaks to the value that Khabib has… Henry Cejudo said he was done, the same night they announced Petr Yan was gonna fight somebody for that title. You don’t do that to Khabib Nurmagomedov. You sit and hope. You sit and wait and hope. Like Dana said, he was very emotional. You could see it, it all came out of him. So you sit and you wait and you hope that the stance changes and you do get that thirtieth fight.
“You don’t (even) have to make a decision in January. I think you can wait until next summer… The reality is this though, with the way that things have gone with the pandemic and everything, Khabib was gonna fight in April but he didn’t fight until October (and) nobody was yelling, ‘Take the belt from him.’ You’ve got time in regards to Khabib Nurmagomedov and if push comes to shove and he needs more time, create another interim title and he just beats the interim champion. That’s exactly what’s happened the last couple times.”
If there is an interim title, however, Cormier believes the stars could align for Conor McGregor to potentially win it and face Nurmagomedov in a rematch.
“Could you imagine if McGregor gets ahold of the interim championship and now you got to Khabib and go, ‘Hey, October, Abu Dhabi, you and McGregor again, boatloads of money”? Because now, you’re Khabib, you walked away, you could say, ‘I want more,’ and there’s a good chance you’ll probably get more because that’s a home run. It’s a home run, you and McGregor.”
Do you think Nurmagomedov will return?