Dan Hardy weighs in on Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Georges St-Pierre dream fight

Whenever the MMA community discusses the greatest of all time (GOAT), two names consistently remain in the conversation: former UFC Lightweight Champion Khabib Nurmagomedov and former two-division champion Georges St-Pierre.

A potential fight between Nurmagomedov and GSP has long been an interesting topic of debate among fans. ‘The Eagle’ dominated the UFC lightweight division, while ‘Rush’ did the same at welterweight and also captured the middleweight title in 2017.

Now, St-Pierre’s former opponent, Dan Hardy, who challenged ‘Rush’ for the welterweight title at UFC 111, has shared his thoughts on how a potential matchup between Nurmagomedov and the former 170-pound champion could have played out.

Dan Hardy explains why Khabib Nurmagomedov would have faced a major size disadvantage against Georges St-Pierre

In his recent appearance on ‘Submission Radio’, Hardy explained that the main sticking point for him when discussing a potential Khabib-GSP fight has always been the size difference. While Khabib was known for his ability to cut significant weight to compete at lightweight, Hardy pointed out that GSP was naturally much bigger at welterweight. 

“It's something that's easy to not appreciate from the outside,' Hardy said. "You go, ‘Oh, well, you know, Khabib was probably cutting from 185 pounds to get to 155.’ I'm like, ‘Yeah, but GSP was ripped at 185.’”

The former challenger pointed to Islam Makhachev's move from lightweight to welterweight as an example of how significant a 15-pound jump can be. Despite his concerns about the size difference, Hardy did not dismiss the potential matchup entirely. He believes Khabib vs. GSP would still have been a fascinating fight, but thinks GSP's natural size would have played an important role. 

“Makhachev moving up 15 pounds was a massive jump, and you know, I think it would have been the same thing for Khabib against GSP. It would have been a great fight, don't get me wrong, but GSP would have been a decent bit bigger and stronger,” Hardy explained.

St-Pierre dethroned Michael Bisping at UFC 217 and captured the middleweight title in 2017. After that, he never returned to competition and eventually announced his retirement from the sport. Meanwhile, Nurmagomedov retired after making three successful lightweight title defenses, with his final fight coming against Justin Gaethje at UFC 254.

Georges St-Pierre details how Dana White approached him about Khabib Nurmagomedov matchup

In an interview with Ariel Helwani, St-Pierre revealed that he wanted to return to fight Nurmagomedov. However, the UFC showed little interest in making the matchup at the time. That said, ‘Rush’ revealed that after ‘The Eagle’ retired from the UFC, he received a call from UFC CEO Dana White asking if he was interested in fighting the Dagestani star.

"We wanted to make the Khabib fight, and the UFC did not want to do it because they wanted to keep the ball rolling with Khabib," St-Pierre said. "Instead of doing one big fight, they think the risk of after the champion loses, it's not worth it. Then, after Khabib retired, Dana called me and asked me if I was interested in fighting Khabib. I found that was strange. I didn't really believe it. I asked him if Khabib really wanted this fight and he said yes. I said, 'Let me think about it.' 

The two-division champion immediately contacted Nurmagomedov’s manager, Ali Abdelaziz, to find out whether the Dagestani star was interested in the matchup. However, Abdelaziz immediately denied that Nurmagomedov or his team had any interest in the fight.

“Then I called Ali Abdelaziz, and Ali says that wasn't true. Then I knew it wasn't true, and Dana came back and says, 'When I try to promote a fight, I don't do three calls at the same time,' which is true. But that's really what happened,” St-Pierre continued.