Georges St-Pierre expected to get called out by Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 254 back in Oct. 2020.
Nurmagomedov fought his last fight on that occasion when he submitted Justin Gaethje in the second round and unified the lightweight titles as a result.
“The Eagle” would subsequently retire and make headlines as just about nobody expected him to call time on his career. That included the retired St-Pierre who was expecting Nurmagomedov to do something completely different.
“I thought it was the only fight I would’ve come back for,” St-Pierre was quoted as saying on the Full Send podcast. “And I remember up to his last fight when he fought Justin Gaethje… everybody told me, even in his entourage, they said, ‘Be ready. Because he’s gonna call you out.'
“So, I thought I am coming out of retirement. I had butterflies, I was like, ‘s**t!’ When I thought I was done, they pull me right back in.”
Of course, that never happened, but it's a fight that was talked about for a while.
St-Pierre was Nurmagomedov's idol and in the years prior to his final contest, he was campaigning for a super fight with the former welterweight champion.
“GSP” was reciprocative to the idea as well, but claimed the UFC was not in favor of the matchup as a loss for Nurmagomedov would have been damaging from their viewpoint. With that, Georges St-Pierre officially announced his retirement in 2019.
But that clearly didn't stop him from expecting to return one more time had Nurmagomedov gone on to call him out at UFC 254.
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