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Is Khabib Nurmagomedov retiring? That is one question that continues to swirl in the mixed martial arts world, and further speculation began to make the rounds that his title could be up for grabs next month.
During a recent interview, Nurmagomedov appeared to hint he believes the UFC 257 main event between Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier will be for his 155-pound belt.
Nurmagomedov made his comments during a recent interview with Match TV.
“Top three [lightweight] fighters right now?” Nurmagomedov said, as translated by Russian outlet RT Sport. “Poirier, McGregor and [Islam] Makhachev. He is not in the top-five yet, but those are the best fighters.
“My belt will be taken by the winner of Dustin and Conor… We are in touch with Dana White, we have not discussed why the belt is not vacant.”
That sounded at first like Nurmagomedov was going to vacate his belt in favor of the winner of the UFC 257 main event.
However, something may have been lost in translation.
According to Nurmagomedov’s manager, Ali Abdel-Aziz, on Twitter, Khabib was simply saying the winner of McGregor vs. Poirier will eventually fight him for the title.
Enough with the fake news. Khabib said the winner of this fight will fight for the title he didn’t say the winner will become champion. #ClickBait https://t.co/gC2BvmKJST
— Ali Abdelaziz (@AliAbdelaziz00) December 28, 2020
We’ll have to wait and see how this all plays out.
UFC 257 is set to take place on Saturday, January 23 live on pay-per-view.
