Georges St-Pierre: UFC Saw Me As A Threat To Khabib Nurmagomedov

Georges St-Pierre stepped away from MMA in November 2013 after defending his UFC welterweight title against Johny Hendricks at UFC 167. Three years later he returned to the octagon. In that bout he choked out Michael Bisping to claim the middleweight crown. Not long after that victory, St-Pierre surrendered the 185-pound title. 

In 2019, St-Pierre told ESPN that he was willing to return to the cage, “if the right fight came along.” The fight he was speaking about was opposite lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov. 

Nurmagomedov seemed willing to face St-Pierre, but the fight never got booked. 

Then, with rumors of St-Pierre’s official retirement from MMA swirling in February 2019, Nurmagomedov made a last ditch effort to make the fight happen. “Let’s do it in November,” Nurmagomedov wrote on Instagram. “After this fight you can retire. I grow up on your fights, and have nothing but respect for you, and I believe showed that to you George when you were in Moscow. But, it would be honor for me to share Octagon with one of the greatest fighters of all time. Let’s do it 155 lbs, or I give away 5 lbs to you, cause you newer done 155. Well, it’s your choice 155 or 160, Montreal, NYC, Moscow or Abu Dhabi. Send me location my Friend.”

Nurmagomedov’s efforts were for naught. The UFC did not book the contest and St-Pierre retired.

Earlier this week, St-Pierre shared his thoughts on why he thinks the UFC did not want him to match up against Nurmagomedov. 

“I know Khabib wanted to have that fight, I want it, but the thing is, if you look from the UFC’s side, I think it’s normal if I put myself in their shoes,” St-Pierre told ESPN. “They didn’t want to take the risk of me winning the title and then after vacating again. I didn’t even want it for the title, I would rather do it not for a title. For me, it was because I considered Khabib, right now, the best fighter in the world, and he wanted to fight me as well so I thought it was a good fan fight.”

“They had other plans for Khabib and I understand that,” St-Pierre added. “They had a lot to lose and if they invest into that fight and their investment goes out after, it’s not a good move.”

“In a way, I could take that as a compliment because maybe they saw me as a threat for them. That means maybe they thought I could win the fight. If they let me fight him, it’s because they think I would have lost. So that’s why.”

Nurmagomedov remains the UFC lightweight champion. He has defended the title twice. His last defense was a September 2019 submission win over Dustin Poirier. Nurmagomedov was supposed to face Tony Ferguson at UFC 249, but that fight fell through when Nurmagomedov could not travel because of the coronavirus pandemic. That card was eventually scrapped because of concerns from Disney
DIS
and ESPN.