UFC President Dana White has pumped the brakes on the buzz about a potential superfight between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Georges St-Pierre.
Nurmagomedov, the UFC lightweight champion, is currently scheduled to defend his title against the division’s interim champion Justin Gaethje.
While this challenge is at currently at the forefront of the champion’s mind, he has long expressed interest in a fight with St-Pierre, the former UFC welterweight and middleweight champion, and recently suggested he’d like to fight the Canadian in April.
White, however, is not particularly keen on the idea. He reminds that the UFC recently hired St-Pierre as a French-language commentator, and explained that he’d rather the Canadian stick to roles of that type than return to the cage.
“Well, let’s see what happens with Gaethje,” White told TSN (via The Body Lock). “You know, that fight’s got to happen first. We just hired GSP, he’s the French commentator now for us. That’s more what I’d like to see GSP doing.
“You don’t see too many athletes who go out on top. GSP has done that and done it very well. He’s got the money, he doesn’t need the money,” White added. “He’s working for us now in a different capacity and I’d love to see him go out on top.”
While Nurmagomedov has been eager to fight St-Pierre for some time, St-Pierre recently leaned towards sticking to his current retirement when asked about a potential superfight with reigning UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman.
“After I go home at night and I’m thinking about all [those] crazy thoughts, and I’m like, ‘I’m gonna be 40 years old soon,” St-Pierre told TMZ Sports recently. “Do I really wanna go back and do a hardcore training camp of two months? Put myself in jail so to speak and get ready for hell?’ I’m like, ‘No, I don’t.’
“I’ve done it for a very long time, and unfortunately there’s too many guys that retire too late, and I do not want to be one of these guys.”
Suffice it to say that a Georges St-Pierre vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov superfight suddenly looks quite unlikely.