FORMER UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov turned down a whopping £70million boxing match with Floyd Mayweather, according to his manager Ali Abdelaziz.
The recently-retired Nurmagomedov revealed his desire to box The Money Man after his UFC 229 victory over Conor McGregor in October 2018.
Despite a public back-and-forth spanning nearly two years, a fight between the pair never came to fruition – although Nurmagomedov revealed last March he’d received a lucrative offer to face the boxing legend.
And according to Abdelaziz, another offer was sent The Eagle’s way after his retirement from mixed martial arts last October.
During an appearance on the Hotboxin’ with Mike Tyson podcast, the Dominance MMA chief said: “Two weeks ago, (or) 10 days ago, Dana White called me.
“He said, ‘Georges St-Pierre, he said he’ll fight Khabib in a non-title fight at 165 pounds.’
“In a way, we’ve been waiting for Georges. I like Georges. He’s my friend. I like Georges.
“We’ve been waiting for Georges for four or five years. ‘I’m coming. I’m not coming.’
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“Now, [he] said, ‘Hey, Khabib is retired. I’m retired. What about coming back and fighting Khabib now?’
“But you know, Khabib got offered $100million after he was retired to fight Floyd Mayweather.
“$100million. $100million. You can ask Floyd. You can ask everybody.
“Khabib said, “No, I’m retired. I told my mother I’m retired. I’m going to keep my word to my mother. If my mother told me to fight again, maybe I will. But right now, she told me not to fight.”
Nurmagomedov hung up his gloves last October following his second-round submission victory over Justin Gaethje at UFC 254.
The Dagestani destroyer walked away from the sport following the death of his father and coach Abdulmanap, who passed away last July following complications stemming from COVID-19.
Nurmagomedov briefly flirted with the prospect of returning to the octagon earlier this year but opted not to backtrack on the promise he made to his mother.
UFC president Dana White tried his best to entice the former lightweight king back to the cage, although his efforts failed to bear any fruit.
In March, Nurmagomedov told ESPN: “Dana called this official, but I retired like four, six months ago.
“It’s very funny. Dana told me when he posted that someone commented saying, ‘Hey, he retired not today, he retired about five months ago,’ and I was like it’s funny.
“We had some conversations with Dana a couple of times and like two days ago we meet with him to talk like two real men.
“We had a very good conversation with them, good dinner, and I really appreciated him not only for me, but all the sport.”
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He added: “It’s very hard when you have power, when you’re the best in the world, when you’re famous, have money and say to everything like this, ‘No.’
“It’s very hard. People maybe will never understand me, but I really hope they’re going to support my decision because everyone has their views.
“My view and my relationship with my mother, I feel like I have to stop because I feel like in every fight, every training camp, this takes some age away from my mother.
“And it’s like what do I have to do? I came to this sport to show who I am and became the best, I’m world champion, and pound-for-pound No. 1. I defended my title three times.
” I defended my title in biggest fight of UFC history. What else? Only money-fights, but I don’t need money.”
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
