Khabib Nurmagomedov is one of the biggest names in MMA despite retiring last year. Many speculate that Nurmagomedov (33) could still make a competition comeback. Georges St Pierre previously discussed how Dana White tried to use him to get Khabib Nurmagomedov to unretire, unsuccessfully.
But White doesn’t give up just like that. Apparently he recently tried to get the grappling phenom back for ‘something different’ and was once again unsuccessful.
“Khabib’s retired. I just reached out to him recently to see if he’s interested in something and he’s like, ‘I’m retired, brother. I’m done.’ I don’t think Khabib ever comes back,” White told the Jim Rome Show.
“It was something different. I was trying to get him to do a grappling match. He’s like, ‘I’m done, I’m retired.’ I think that when his father passed away, that was a wrap for him. He’s just focused on training other guys and helping them become world champions.”
UFC has been contributing talent to Fury Grappling promotion and has been trying to amp up their UFCFIghtPass subscription lineup perhaps seeing how ONE FC and Flograppling are cashing in on a sport that’s badly promoted.
This attempt from White comes on the wings of some eye brow raising comments. White had omitted Khabib from his ‘greatest of all time’ list in a discussion with GQ:
“Obviously, he is talented enough [to be the greatest]. Who knows what he could accomplish, but he retired too early. I mean Jon Jones is probably going to fight at heavyweight this year. Whatever you think about Jon, it’s hard not to call him the GOAT. Believe me when I tell you, I have tried to convince Khabib to come out of retirement. We will see what happens over the next couple of years. I feel like he left in his prime, look at what he did to Justin Gaethje right before he retired.”
Previously Nurmagomedov nixed the idea of grappling against St Pierre in his own promotion after his business partner tried to promote it:
“I don’t see the point of it. You can, of course, add fuel to the fire. Say something… But I don’t want to. I don’t want to promote this topic. “Oh I could return in Eagle FC” – I don’t want to make it. I want to make publicity for the league in another format. I don’t think that i’ll return, (to) wrestle with someone.”