{"id":372328,"date":"2020-12-30T07:46:33","date_gmt":"2020-12-30T15:46:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=372328"},"modified":"2020-12-30T07:46:33","modified_gmt":"2020-12-30T15:46:33","slug":"dustin-poirier-most-deserving-of-a-title-shot-says-khabib-nurmagomedov-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/dustin-poirier-most-deserving-of-a-title-shot-says-khabib-nurmagomedov-coach\/","title":{"rendered":"Dustin Poirier “most deserving of a title shot,” says Khabib Nurmagomedov coach"},"content":{"rendered":"

Coach Javier Mendez believes that if his star pupil, UFC lightweight champ Khabib Nurmagomedov, retires, Dustin Poirier should fight for the vacant belt.<\/p>\n

Nurmagomedov announced his retirement after a submission victory over Justin Gaethje in October. That being said, he still hasn’t vacated the lightweight title, due primarily to the fact that UFC President Dana White hopes he’ll fight again.<\/p>\n

If Nurmagomedov does retire, however, his long-time handler believes Dustin Poirier should be involved in the next lightweight title fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s face it, if in fact he\u2019s not coming back, and we know that for a fact – and I don\u2019t know that – but if in fact he\u2019s not, then the rightful person that should be fighting for the title is Dustin against anybody,\u201d Mendez said on\u00a0The Schmozone podcast<\/a> this week (via MMA Fighting<\/a>). \u201cSo to me, they got one of the right persons in there. Conor<\/a> [McGregor] would be the second right one, or it could be Justin Gaethje\u00a0or it could be\u00a0Michael Chandler. It doesn\u2019t matter. Or (Charles) Oliveira. What matters is that Dustin is in the title hunt because he\u2019s the one that, in my opinion, is most deserving of a title shot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Poirier is slated to fight Conor McGregor on January 23, but there will be no title on the line in the fight.<\/p>\n

As for whether Nurmagomedov will end up vacating his belt, Mendez isn’t sure, but notes that it will take very special circumstances to convince the champ to fight again.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know, because we never talked about it, but I can only tell you this,” Mendez said. “His father, his vision was for Khabib to fight GSP and retire at 30-0. So if Dana anything to do with anything, it isn\u2019t a boatload of money because I don\u2019t believe that\u2019s gonna be the case. It would be something to the effect of something that very much interests him. So maybe a GSP fight. I don\u2019t know, I\u2019m guessing.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut in order for that to happen, he\u2019d have to go to the No. 1 person that he promised he would retire (to), and that would be his mother, not me,” Mendez added. “I\u2019m on board for whatever he wants to do. So he\u2019d have to clear it with his mother if he wants to do anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI can only go by what\u2019s in the media and what he\u2019s been saying. When have we known him to not do what he\u2019s said? I don\u2019t know, I can\u2019t recall a time he\u2019s said something and didn\u2019t mean it.\u201d<\/p>\n

What do you think the future holds for Khabib Nurmagomedov? Should Dustin Poirier get a title shot if the champ retires?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Coach Javier Mendez believes that if his star pupil, UFC lightweight champ Khabib Nurmagomedov, retires, Dustin Poirier should fight for the vacant belt. Nurmagomedov announced his retirement after a submission victory over Justin Gaethje in October. That being said, he still hasn’t vacated the lightweight title, due primarily to the fact that UFC President Dana […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54430,"featured_media":361366,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10297,10114,39610],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nDustin Poirier "most deserving of a title shot," says Khabib Nurmagomedov coach | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Coach Javier Mendez believes that if UFC lightweight champ Khabib Nurmagomedov, retires, Dustin Poirier should fight for the vacant belt.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/dustin-poirier-most-deserving-of-a-title-shot-says-khabib-nurmagomedov-coach\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" 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