Rumors have been swirling regarding a potential Nurmagomedov vs. St-Pierre superfight for years now, but nothing fire-like has ever come from the endless smoke. The last official word on the record was from GSP saying he was no longer in the headspace to challenge Khabib because he wasn’t able to train with COVID-19 restrictions locking Canada down tight.
But according to Khabib’s manager Ali Abdelaziz, that position has changed in the last two weeks.
“Ten days ago, Dana White called me,” Abdelaziz said on Mike Tyson’s Hotboxin’ podcast. “And he said Georges St-Pierre, he said he will fight Khabib. Non-title fight, 165 pounds.”
“But in a way, we’ve been waiting for Georges… I like Georges. He’s my friend. We’ve been waiting for Georges for four or five years. ‘I’m coming, I’m not coming.’ At the end of the day, the UFC wanted to make him fight at lightweight. He went on to welterweight. Khabib was the lightweight champion. But now he said, ‘Hey, Khabib’s retired, I’m retired, what about coming back (to) fight Khabib now?’”
“To be honest, as a human, I don’t want to see Georges St-Pierre in this,” Ali continued. “He’s 40 years old today. It’s his birthday. Khabib is a man wrestled bears, alligators, and lions. They both have the same game, but Khabib is much younger, more ferocious. I don’t think it will be even a fair fight.”
So what is this, just more smoke Abdelaziz is hotboxin’ with Tyson? Or the beginning of the fire? At this point the MMA scene has been buzzing about this fight for so long that it’s hard to get hyped until Dana White, the only guy who for some reason seems lukewarm on the idea, says it’s happening.
We don’t blame anyone for that, but if you are still trying to read the smoke signals, Montreal is set to leave COVID-19 red zone on June 7th. Let’s see what Georges does then.