Since he made the announcement in late October, Khabib Nurmagomedov has reaffirmed his retirement multiple times now. Dana White, however, isn’t willing to accept it just yet.
The UFC president is scheduled to have a sitdown with the reigning lightweight champion “sometime soon” in Abu Dhabi. And he’d repeatedly stated, the goal is to convince the undefeated “Eagle” to make a comeback for one last time.
“I’m a little bit confident I can talk him into it.”
Khabib’s future and the status of the lightweight title will be decided before McGregor and Poirier face-off #UFC257 says Dana White.
@CarolinePearce pic.twitter.com/v04UiNrFoL
— UFC on BT Sport (@btsportufc) December 17, 2020
“I think his dad wanting him to get to 30-0 is in the back of his mind,” White told BT Sport. “And he wants to achieve that because he knew his father wanted it. But we’ll see. He and I are gonna get together next month and talk.”
White knows it would be a challenge to successfully goad Khabib into taking back his statement. But he does have that “little” confidence that he’d be able to pull it off.
“He might not. Maybe he won’t fight (again),” he said. “I don’t know the answer to that. But I’m a little confident that I can talk him into it.”
White also touched on the UFC 257 headliner between Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier. A logical move to make would be to turn it into an interim title fight, but the boss man isn’t willing to oblige just yet.
“No interim title. I’ll know next month. I’ll know when Conor and Poirier are fighting whether (Khabib’s) gonna fight again.
As of the updated rankings this week, Khabib also remains to be the UFC’s top pound-for-pound fighter.
About the author
