Georges St-Pierre recalls 'strange' Dana White call that nearly led to Khabib Nurmagomedov fight
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Georges St-Pierre handled his retirement much more swiftly than Jon Jones did.
This past Saturday night in Baku, Azerbaijan, UFC CEO Dana White announced that UFC heavyweight champion Jones had officially retired, therefore promoting interim champion Tom Aspinall to undisputed status. The announcement concluded the long, drawn-out saga that has stalled out the UFC heavyweight division since Jones won the vacant title against top contender Ciryl Gane in March 2023.
Fellow all-time great St-Pierre also made the transition from a supremely dominant single-division champion to multi-weight titleholder when he captured the UFC middleweight belt in 2017. However, the biggest difference between the two situations was that St-Pierre retired and vacated his belt significantly quicker. The UFC Hall of Famer spoke with Uncrowned's "The Ariel Helwani Show" at the 2025 Fanatics Fest in New York this past Friday before Jones' official retirement and shared his thoughts on the timeline.
"It depends what he does it for. If it's for negotiation tactics with the UFC, it's a chess game," St-Pierre said of Jones delaying a decision on his future. "But if you do it just because you want to hold back everything and it's an ego thing, this is not OK. I feel like if it's a way for him to get more money, it's OK, but it's a negotiation tactic. If it's just because he wants to hold it as much as he wants, and he knows he's not going to go back, this is not fair because other fighters are waiting.
"As an athlete, you have a window. If you're past that window, you can never go back."
St-Pierre, 44, fell into a similar position in 2017 of being a champion with an interim titlist, Robert Whittaker, waiting in the wings who he was expected to face post-coronation. Winning the 185-pound title with an impressive rear-naked choke submission against Michael Bisping made the prospect of a Whittaker collision carry a similar old vs. new motif as the ill-fated Jones vs. Aspinall encounter.
But St-Pierre's health had other plans, so "GSP" retired for good less than a month after his win.
"I could have held the belt if I wanted to, but because at the time when I retired after Bisping, I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, and my condition was very bad," St-Pierre said. "I was on medication and I didn't want to hold [up] the division, because I knew there was a lot of young contenders. I knew I could stay with the belt and parade with the belt, and get all the money, the sponsors for a year, but I didn't want to do that because it would have put the division on hold. At the point I knew I was not coming back, I needed to take care of my health, I relinquished the belt immediately after because I didn't want to do that for the respect of my peers.
"I think who's accountable now in this [Jones] situation is maybe the UFC. The UFC has to change their policy, and I believe they have to keep the ball rolling. If the ball is not rolling, it delays everything, and it can be a very negative thing for the young contenders that are waiting to get a shot for the title."
With Jones vs. Aspinall officially off the table, it joins the growing list of much-hyped mega-fights the UFC failed to make happen, for one reason or another. Like the rest of us, St-Pierre is left to speculate precisely how the champion vs. champion showdown would've unfolded.
"It's a tough, tough match to call," St-Pierre said. "It's very hard to bet against Jon Jones because he is basically almost a perfect fighter, but does Tom Aspinall have what he needs to crack the code? That's the big question.
"Tom Aspinall is certainly a type of fighter that is different than everyone else. He reminds me a little bit of Fedor Emelianenko, except that he's heavier than Fedor, and he seems to me that he's more refined. He's the updated version of what Fedor was. It's a tough, tough fight to call.
"Now, as time goes by, for sure, Jon's athletic ability will start to diminish. It's normal. He may be past his prime, and Tom is in his prime right now. In terms of accomplishment, Jon Jones [is] the best ever, I believe. But if you talk about [a fight right] now, it could go either way."
Another fantasy fight from the past that never quite had the same time to marinate was St-Pierre against undefeated lightweight legend Khabib Nurmagomedov. St-Pierre and his team wanted to fight Nurmagomedov as their follow-up after their saga at middleweight, most likely at a weight below 185 pounds.
But the timing never properly aligned. It wasn't until three years after St-Pierre's departure that Nurmagomedov followed suit with his own retirement, that the UFC came around to the idea.
According to St-Pierre, if UFC had been interested earlier, we would've seen a dream fight come true.
"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.' Then I called [Nurmagomedov's manager] 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.
"The first time, it was on my side. We asked the UFC if they were willing to make the fight — they didn't want to do it. A few months after Khabib retired, Dana tried to make it because he knew we were both retired. I would have done it. I wouldn't have had a choice."
