Khabib Nurmagomedov reacts after Georges St-Pierre claims he would have “put him down” in a potential UFC fight

Khabib Nurmagomedov has responded after Georges St-Pierre claimed he would have won had they ended up fighting.

After Nurmagomedov retired, there were rumors of him ending his retirement to face St-Pierre in a super-fight, but it never came to fruition. It is one of the biggest what-if questions in the UFC, as the two are among the best fighters ever to compete.

But, speaking on the Pound 4 Pound podcast, Georges St-Pierre said he thought he would have beaten ‘The Eagle’ and explained why.

“I think Khabib could have beat me, I’m not saying I could have beat Khabib all the time,” St-Pierre said. “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, that doesn’t mean I will beat him all the time. But I was confident, maybe I’m wrong. 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…

“So my strategy if I would have gone against Khabib would have been to keep the fight as much as I can in the middle and not be afraid to go to take him down. I think that I would have maybe been the first guy that he fought or one of the only guys that would have tried to put him down, and I’ve put down everybody that I’ve fought,” St-Pierre added.

Following Georges St-Pierre’s comments, Khabib Nurmagomedov responded to it and gave the Canadian plenty of respect.

All respect from Khabib in response to Georges St-Pierre’s comments 🤝 pic.twitter.com/bxaqtafk4z

— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) March 29, 2024

“I learn from this guy a lot. Even hear he talk about me is so interesting. GSP all day,” Nurmagomedov wrote.

It would have been very interesting to see how this fight would have played had it ever happened. It also would have been one of the biggest UFC fights ever, but unfortunately it wasn’t meant to be. Khabib Nurmagomedov and Georges St-Pierre are now both happily retired and neither man has any plans of making a return to the Octagon.