UFC 254 headliner Khabib Nurmagomedov on why he is not interested in rematches with Conor McGregor or Dustin Poirier
Khabib Nurmagomedov is due to take on Justin Gaethje for the Lightweight championship at UFC 254 this weekend. Speaking ahead of the fight, the Russian admitted that he isn't interested in a rematch with either Conor McGregor or Dustin Poirier.
I finished both of them, and finished in a dominant position, a dominant performance. I’m not interested in both of those guys, because I need something new. I need new blood, new energy. Justin Gaethje gives me new motivation. He’s the real deal. Right now, he’s interim champ, he’s very tough guy.
If I think about both, Dustin and Conor, they don’t give me good energy, they don’t give me motivation. Fight for what? For my legacy? I already put these guys on my list. I already beat them. Everything is finished with these guys.
Khabib dominated both fighters, finishing Conor in the 4th Round and Dustin in the 3rd round via rear-naked chokes. The duo could potentially fight each other in January, as confirmed by Dana White.
The Lightweight champion had previously hinted that he would fight anyone who beats Dustin Poirier, but the 32-year-old doesn't seem interested in a match-up against Conor McGregor anymore. Khabib and the Irishman have a lot of bad blood between them from their last bout at UFC 229.
Khabib Nurmagomedov interested in fighting Georges St-Pierre next
One fight Khabib Nurmagomedov is looking forward to is the fight against Canadian Georges St-Pierre. Although the 39-year-old last fought in 2017, St-Pierre admitted he would be interested to fight Khabib.
Speaking to ESPN’s First Take, Kabaib said:
I really become excited when I think about Georges St-Pierre. I don’t know if he wants to fight with me or not, can he make weight, 155 or not, but this fight makes me excited, honestly. I think me vs. Georges is going to be very, very big fight. Like big fight for fans, big fight for pay-per-view, big fight for analytics, for everybody. This is (the) only fight in UFC, after Gaethje, that makes me very excited.
It remains to be seen if Georges St-Pierre can make 155 lbs, given he fought most of his career at Welterweight. His last fight against Michael Bisping was at Middleweight.