UFC CEO Dana White and boxing promoter and former champion Oscar De La Hoya do not like each other. At all! Their feud started when the 51-year-old criticized the 2017 mega-fight between Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather, which White had co-promoted. In response, White rehashed De La Hoya’s past with drugs and alcohol. Their resentment has led to various heated exchanges between them since.

This bitterness, however, led to one of the biggest potential fights in UFC history, as former UFC champion and GOAT contender Georges St-Pierre detailed former champions Kamaru Usman and Henry Cejudo on their ‘Pound 4 Pound’ podcast. So, what led to it? 

GSP reveals what led to potential Khabib Nurmagomedov bout

Khabib Nurmagomedov broke down in tears after beating Justin Gaethje at UFC 254 and announced his retirement. ‘The Eagle’ had lost his father and long-time trainer Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov to COVID-19 complications and had made a promise to his mother to stop fighting since his father passed away.

Prior to the fight, Georges St-Pierre, who had retired three years earlier and was Abdulmanap’s favorite fighter, went on a media tour and promised a big announcement for Khabib following UFC 254. The announcement would have been a boxing fight between ‘GSP’ and Khabib, but they never announced since ‘The Eagle’ retired.

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GSP told Kamaru Usman and Henry Cejudo that the potential bout between him and Khabib happened because the French-Canadian was in talks to cross over and box Oscar De La Hoya. However, since he was still signed to the UFC despite his retirement, he needed the promotion’s green light to proceed.

“It did not happen because… Dana White hates Oscar De La Hoya… My contract, the way it was made, I still had ties to the UFC, and when I asked Dana for permission, he was like ‘F that guy’. And then [Dana] called me after, he said he wanted me to fight Khabib Nurmagomedov],” ‘GSP’ said.

And when he called Dana White to ask for the thumbs up, the UFC CEO was totally against the idea of ‘GSP’ fighting his nemesis and shot it down. However, perhaps to make up for the money St-Pierre would have made in the boxing match, White offered him a fight with Khabib Nurmagomedov.

GSP confident he would have beaten Khabib

Analyzing the matchup between himself and Khabib, ‘GSP’ felt that he would have posed a unique challenge to the former lightweight champion since he would not have been afraid to attempt takedowns on him. Moreover, he was confident of taking ‘The Eagle’ down with his iconic grappling skills. “I think I would have beat him because if he would have come to put pressure on me, I would have put him down. I would have had the confidence to try to go for it,” he said.

The Quebec native told Usman and Cejudo that he was confident he could have handed the Dagestani the first loss of his career had they fought. “I think Khabib could have beat me. I’m not saying I could have beat Khabib all the time. I was confident enough to take that fight that I was thinking that if I take that fight I’m going to beat him that day at that particular place,” he added.

While Khabib Nurmagomedov fought a lot of outstanding fighters in the UFC, he certainly didn’t face a grappler with the caliber and pedigree of Georges St-Pierre, whom even his father had advised him to learn from. And their bout would have been potentially one of the biggest fights in UFC history, making it perhaps the biggest what-if fight in the promotion’s history.

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