Dana White giving update on Khabib's UFC future Saturday

Image: MMA Junkie/USA Today

Dana White said that he will kick off Saturday’s UFC on ABC broadcast with an update on lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov’s future and how it will affect next Saturday’s UFC 257 clash between Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier.

Even though the undefeated Nurmagomedov retired followed his October win over Justin Gaethje, he has yet to be stripped of the title and White has repeatedly said he has doubts Nurmagomedov is truly done fighting. 

White shared a clip of him walking into a room to talk with the current champion on Friday.

If “The Eagle” is not interested in fighting, it appears to be a lock that the title will be up for grabs in the Poirier-McGregor fight. However, if Nurmagomeov does want to fight one more time to get to 30-0, he would likely get the winner of Poirier-McGregor even though he has already beaten both men soundly.

A McGregor rematch, however, would generate a huge pay-per-view windfall given their record-setting performance the first time around.

The UFC’s ABC debut starts at 3 PM Eastern with a card headlined by former featherweight champion Max Holloway vs. Calvin Kattar.