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Georges St-Pierre faces Michael Bisping during their middleweight title bout at UFC 217. Photo: AP

UFC: Khabib manager gives Georges St-Pierre three conditions for fight, then ‘we can make it happen’

  • Ali Abdelaziz says ‘send a location, send a phone number’ as legendary St-Pierre revives talk of super fight
  • ‘I’m not gonna put Georges ahead of Justin Gaethje, Tony Ferguson … but I’ll put Georges ahead of Conor McGregor’
Georges St-Pierre revived talk of a super fight against UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov last week, but admitted it’s still a long shot. Ali Abdelaziz thinks it can still happen, though.

“He’s the greatest fighter of all time. And he’s a very good friend of mine, I love Georges,” Abdelaziz told ESPN’s Brett Okamoto. “Khabib is my brother, I’m very close with him. If Georges St-Pierre wanted to fight, it’s very simple: we can make this happen.”

Former UFC welterweight champion St-Pierre (26-2) hung up his gloves for a second time in 2018 after coming out of retirement to claim Michael Bisping’s middleweight title. He had wanted to take on the undefeated Nurmagomedov, but the UFC had other plans – namely booking the Russian against a returning Conor McGregor.

“You don’t think I can make this fight?” added Abdelaziz, who manages Nurmagomedov at Dominance MMA. “In 2017, Georges St-Pierre wanted to fight Michael Bisping for the middleweight title. Dana White didn’t believe him, and I got involved as a friend. I had to convince [UFC matchmaker] Sean Shelby to convince Dana to meet Georges.

“Georges flew to Las Vegas. I didn’t manage him, I was helping him as a friend. He had dinner with me, Sean Shelby, and Dana. Dana was like, ‘This guy don’t wanna fight’, but then 30 minutes into the conversation, Georges went to the bathroom. Dana said, ‘He’s out of his mind, he’s crazy’.

“Georges is out of his mind, he’s a little bit nutty. Georges started getting up, shouting, walking around the table and just got very emotional. He always have a chip on his shoulder, it’s real. Dana see the reality.”

Gaethje out to ‘royally screw up’ Khabib vs Ferguson match-up

Abdelaziz said UFC president White will have “stipulations” if St-Pierre faces Khabib, but nothing he’s not confident can be resolved.

“If Georges wants this fight to really happen, he has to do three things: pick up the phone and call me, he can call Dana directly. Dana White respects Georges St-Pierre, he likes him a lot. Dana White doesn’t like too many people. Then he [St-Pierre] have to make 155 pounds, and he have to communicate.

“He have a good team, but he always can call me. Everybody can ask what happened in 2017. I communicate people, that’s it. But all the time talk about Georges wanna fight this guy – hey, send a location, like Khabib said. Send a phone number, we can make it happen.”

Georges St-Pierre controls Michael Bisping from the top. Photo: AP

However, Abdelaziz said that St-Pierre is “not in the conversation right now”, with Justin Gaethje and Tony Ferguson ahead of him in the pecking order. But he would let the Canadian leapfrog Conor McGregor in the queue.

“Georges is not a guy who wants to disrespect other people,” Abdelaziz said. “People talk every couple month about Georges St-Pierre but I respect Justin. I respect Tony. I’ll put Georges before Conor every day of the week, but I’m not gonna put Georges before Justin Gaethje, before Tony Ferguson, because this is a deserving guy.

“Right now it’s about Justin Gaethje fighting Tony Ferguson, and knocking his head clean off. People said Tony Ferguson and [Khabib] is a curse. Guess what? May 9, the spell on the fight is gonna be dissolved, because I believe Justin Gaethje is gonna put him to sleep. And now we won’t want to talk about Tony any more. That’s it.”

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