UFC president Dana White has explained why he isn’t exactly chomping at the bit to book Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Georges St-Pierre.
St-Pierre had expressed interest in a bout with UFC lightweight champion Nurmagomedov. When UFC officials had other plans, St-Pierre decided to retire from mixed martial arts competition. For White, he won’t soon forget being burned on a deal with St-Pierre who vacated his middleweight title after agreeing to defend it.
White Talks Not Being Interested In Khabib vs. GSP
Speaking to TSN’s Aaron Bronsteter, White said that he isn’t willing to let St-Pierre pick and choose title bouts:
“Well there’s two things. First of all, who doesn’t love Georges St-Pierre? Love Georges St-Pierre, the best ever as far as human being. Great guy, love him. Georges St-Pierre and I had a deal. He was gonna fight Bisping at 185 pounds and if he won he would defend the title. He bailed on it, didn’t do it. So you can’t just come out and handpick fights that you want for titles.”
White went on to say that while Nurmagomedov vs. St-Pierre isn’t impossible, he’d advise not to count on it happening.
“He made this deal with me that he would defend the title. He went in and he saw Bisping as an easy fight. He fought Bisping and then you look at the guys that are behind Bisping and they’re all killers. They’re all literally killers. But now to come back and he wants to fight at 155 for the title. We’re not doing a goofy 165 whatever, that’s not gonna happen. Then I guess if I get into a position where Khabib the champ wants it bad enough, we’re gonna have to talk about it. But at the end of the day, it doesn’t make sense to me.”
