Dana White Addresses his Issues With Booking GSP vs. Khabib • MMA News

Dana White Addresses his Issues With Booking GSP vs. Khabib • MMA News

UFC President Dana White has clarified his stance on the potential Georges St-Pierre vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov bout booking. This is a fight that the UFC boss has been against despite both fighters wanting it to happen and fight fans around the world expressing their interest in it. 

Prior to the former UFC welterweight champion retiring from the sport of MMA, he expressed interest in making a superfight happen against the UFC lightweight champion. Part of GSP’s decision to retire comes after failed negotiations between himself and the UFC for a fight that would see him compete against Nurmagomedov.

White took part in a recent interview with TSN where he talked about his issues with this fight happening. It all goes back to GSP coming out of retirement to fight Michael Bisping and winning the middleweight title from the MMA Legend only to relinquish it in the aftermath of the fight with a bout of colitis. 

Dana White Addresses his Problems

White had an issue with GSP handpicking Bisping as his opponent and going back on his word of defending the middleweight title. With that and there being worthy title contenders in the lightweight division right now, White doesn’t think a fight between GSP and Khabib makes sense at this time. 

“He made this deal with me that he would defend the title,” White explained (H/T to MMA Fighting). “He went in and he saw Bisping as an easy fight. He fought Bisping and then you look at the guys that are behind Bisping and they’re all killers. They’re all literally killers.

“I guess if I get into a position where Khabib the champ wants it bad enough, we’re going to have to talk about it but at the end of the day it doesn’t make sense to me,” White said. “You have other guys lined up behind him. You’re just asking me if Tony Ferguson is going to get a shot. We’ll give you a shot after Georges St-Pierre slides in at 155 and gets his shot. Then you’ve got Conor [McGregor] who wants a rematch.

“There’s guys backed up that want to fight in that division. You can’t come back out of retirement and hand pick fights that you want when you didn’t even keep your word with me on defending the [185] pound belt. Have I made that clear?”