Khabib Nurmagomedov has been retired from combat sports for quite some time now, but he’s recently been the subject of some rumors about a potential grappling match. The rumors started to surface after Dana White had repeatedly tried to encourage Nurmagomedov to return to his career in the UFC, without any success. That’s when the idea of a grappling match with Georges St-Pierre started to gain some traction, as it was seen as something that Nurmagomedov might have agreed to. It might have seemed far-fetched at first, but St-Pierre himself actually said he was open to the idea.
That initial hope got shut down really quick though, as Nurmagomedov came out to publicly state that he wasn’t interested in taking the match. Although that might have been the end of it under normal circumstances, but apparently the potential matchup was too good for the powers that be to let go of. UFC CEO Dana White revealed that he made the offer, but it was turned down. Although White is known for often fabricating or exaggerating stories in order to promote future events, evidence came out later on to support that this might have been true.
Georges St-Pierre was actually booked for a grappling match at UFC Fight Pass Invitational 6 and White had already said that negotiations with Nurmagomedov failed, that didn’t stop the speculation. That’s when Craig Jones claimed in an episode of El Segundo podcast that Nurmagomedov had requested a crazy $5 million sum in order to accept the match. Khabib Nurmagomedov’s manager Rizvan Magomedov gave his statement to Russian news outlet TASS media and he was pretty clear about whether or not there was any truth behind the amount he might have asked for to take a grappling match:
“They proposed to hold a fight, but the conversation didn’t even reach the amounts. They didn’t even discuss, they didn’t ask what amount and price. They asked if there was a desire or not. Then it was all over. And where did Craig Jones get the figure about 5 million, maybe his grandmother whispered these numbers to him. It looks funny.”
