We are now approaching “Khabib and Dana White: The Meeting Part 2” after the UFC boss revealed that he is expected to meet with the lightweight champion again soon to determine the future of the lightweight championship.
Dana White and Khabib Nurmagomedov finally had their long-anticipated meeting last week. For a meeting that had preceded itself by weeks of hype, fans expected for there to be some definitive answers to come from it. Instead, like a good soap opera, it just lured your interest in enough for you to keep watching, beginning with UFC 257.
Apparently, Khabib Nurmagomedov’s decision on whether or not he’ll fight again will hinge in large part on whether or not any of the UFC 257 lightweight competitors blow him away. Those competitors are mainly Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier, who will be headlining the event, but I suppose it could also very well apply to Dan Hooker and Michael Chandler, who will be competing in the co-main event. Either way, there will be another meeting between Khabib and Dana White after the smoke settles on Fight Island, where the two will discuss the future of the lightweight championship once again.
“He’s cornering on Wednesday, and then he leaves,” White said of Khabib at the UFC on ABC: Holloway vs. Kattar post-fight press conference. “So he leaves and goes to Vegas. So I will have the fight, and fly home on Sunday, and I’ll see him again in Vegas.
“So those fights will have played out. He and I are gonna hook up and go to dinner in Vegas and talk again, and we’ll make a decision. And the one thing that he did say is, ‘I’ll never hold up the division. If I decide I don’t want to fight any of these guys, whoever’s next is next.’”
GSP No Longer A Topic of Interest for Khabib
One name that will not come up at all according to Dana White is that of Georges St-Pierre. White claims that GSP’s name did not come up in the original meeting, and that it’s because there is no longer interest from either end for that contest to happen.
“GSP never came up,” White said of his meeting with Khabib. “(Khabib’s) not interested in that fight. And from what I hear today after that, neither is GSP. So that’s over.”
There are a couple of things worth nothing there. Firstly, it is interesting that White is so certain that Khabib is no longer interested in the GSP fight when GSP’s name “never came up.” Secondly, what White “heard” about GSP not being interested in the fight contradicts a very recent interview in which St-Pierre said the literal opposite and that a fight with Khabib excites him. Nonetheless, GSP’s name doesn’t seem to be in the mix anymore, regardless of the reason.
There is no estimated date for when exactly Khabib and Dana will meet in Vegas, so prepare yourselves for weeks more of hype and speculation about Khabib’s future centered on a second installment of “The Meeting.”
What are your thoughts on The Meeting Part 2 and Dana White saying the door is closed on a Khabib/GSP bout?
