Former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov is now a promoter for Eagle FC, the promotion he started after retiring from combat sports back in late 2020. And it sounds like “The Eagle” is going to be just as good at promoting as he was at fighting, based on some of his recent comments in Miami.
Nurmagomedov and his team are creating weight classes that fit better with modern-day MMA, including a 165-pound division, which is something longtime rival Dustin Poirier has been asking for over the course of his illustrious career.
“I’m gonna sign Dustin Poirier to Eagle FC at 165,” Nurmagomedov told ESPN. “If UFC release him, Khabib here, always. I’m here for you. We can sign him, we can make some charity stuff. Let’s go Dustin, just call me. You know my manager’s number.”
Even with his loss to Charles Oliveira in the UFC 269 main event last weekend in Las Vegas, “The Diamond” is likely to stay with Dana White and Co. for the foreseeable future, even if it means jumping up to the welterweight division.
“I don’t know if I wanna make that cut again. I might never fight at 155 pounds again,” Poirier told The MMA Hour. “I don’t know what’s gonna happen. I don’t know the future. But I don’t know if I wanna go through that kind of training camp again, where I’m hungry every day and competing in the gym and pushing myself on low calories.”
Under normal circumstances, a rival promoter sweet-talking fighters still under contract to UFC would prompt White to call his high-powered attorneys; however, Nurmagomedov left the promotion under good terms and still talks to his old boss “all the time.”
“Dana is like my big brother, always have very good relationship with him. I keep in touch with him all the time,” Nurmagomedov continued. “Nothing against him, but my goal is to make Eagle FC a global sport. Change little bit system. Not rules, but system.”
Eagle FC will make its stateside debut on Jan. 28 in “The Sunshine State.”