Daniel Cormier Claims A Fight With Georges St-Pierre Could Draw Khabib From Retirement
Former two-weight world champion, Daniel ‘DC’ Cormier had told how he believes if the UFC dangled a potential ‘superfight’ opponent of Georges St-Pierre in front of American Kickboxing Academy teammate, Khabib ‘The Eagle’ Nurmagomedov — it’s a fight that could draw the lightweight champion from his retirement.
With the future of the current undisputed 155-pound titleholder still up in the air since he shockingly announced his decision to walk away from the sport immediately following his successful title unification outing at UFC 254 in October, Khabib has been continously linked with a retirement snapping return.
Submitting then-interim titleholder, Justin ‘The Highlight’ Gaethje at the ‘Fight Island’ event, Khabib, who had lost his father and renowned sambo coach, Abdulmanap earlier this year after he died due to complications stemming from COVID-19 — the Dagestani revealed that he had made a promise to his mother that he wouldn’t make another Octagon appearance without his father by his side.
Remaining the pack leader at lightweight as well as scooping the #1 rank in the organization’s pound-for-pound listing, Khabib had recently detailed how he hoped to follow through with plans to continue his academic studies as well as tend to his personal farm after his decision to retire from professional mixed martial arts competition.
In the days and weeks following Khabib’s sudden retirement, UFC president Dana White explained how he was confident that the undefeated 32-year-old would snap a retirement in order to attempt to improve his record to 30-0 — ahead of a planning meeting of the two next month in Abu Dhabi, UAE.
According to the above mentioned, Cormier, a potential showdown with former two-weight world champion, St-Pierre would offer Khabib the chance to make history — an aspect of Khabib’s legacy he’s hoping to nail down.
“It would have to be Georges St-Pierre,” Cormier told MMA Fighting recently. “I believe that a big fight is what he would want in order to just prove himself. Like you said, Khabib Nurmagomedov is just trying to make history and a win over Georges St-Pierre would do exactly that for him. When your résumé becomes so big, not many things can add value to it. If he can go and [fight] GSP and beat GSP, that adds value.“
Cormier continued on the topic of a possible clash of Khabib and the retired, St-Pierre and claimed it would be a “great” matchup given the styles of the two sport standouts.
“It’s a great fight,” Cormier said. “I think Georges has good takedown defence. I think Georges has good striking. The highest level striking we had seen for a long time. Georges was one of those guys that almost seemed to be ahead of the times. He almost was ahead of the times. Like we were learning to strike or wrestle while Georges was able to do them both at the same time. That was very rare back then and that’s why he stood out so far above everybody else.“
Making his most recent Octagon appearance at UFC 217 in November 2017, Canadian fan-favourite, St-Pierre claimed the middleweight crown in his promotional return, finishing the undisputed best, Michael ‘The Count’ Bisping with a rear-naked choke.
