The sole obstacle that has been standing in the way of a clash between lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov and former welterweight and middleweight champion Georges St-Pierre has been UFC president Dana White. Now, the man who runs the Ultimate Fighting Championship appears to have left the window open for a showdown featuring two of MMA's best.
Nurmagomedov's (28-0) manager Ali Abdelaziz recently told UFC Arabia that after his client faces Justin Gaethje on Oct. 24 — and should he emerge victorious — the Dagestan star would attempt to go 30-0 and go ride off into the sunset.
White told ESPN on Monday he would allow Nurmagomedov to pick his final opponent inside the Octagon and would even try to make a St-Pierre fight.
"At the end of the day, the Conor McGregor [rematch], I know Conor has wanted that fight since the last one [in October 2018]," White said. "That's a fight to make, but I don't know. We'll see how this plays out. Sure, [I would be open to St-Pierre] if it's his last fight. This guy's been great to the company, great to the sport. I like Khabib a lot. I would do anything Khabib wanted to do."
Nurmagomedov and St-Pierre have expressed in the past their desire to square off with another. St-Pierre (26-2) has said he'd drop all the down to 155 to challenge the man he feels is the best pound-for-pound fighter in MMA. Nurmagomedov has said that St-Pierre is one of the all-time greats and wanted to test his skills against the Canadian legend.
White has been against the idea of the two fighting each other ever since St-Pierre retired shortly after defeating Michael Bisping in 2017. St-Pierre immediately vacated the middleweight title he won in that fight, and White was not interested in the same thing happening should St-Pierre defeat Nurmagomedov. But if both are looking at this as a retirement fight, that changes things drastically.