The winds of change they are a-blowing, and that could bode well for Khabib Nurmagomedov.

Since winning the UFC lightweight title last year, Nurmagomedov has been singularly focused on one thing: a potential superfight with Georges St-Pierre. Likewise, St-Pierre was also interested in fighting Khabib following Khabib’s domination of Conor McGregor, niy Dana White and the UFC insisted that fight would never happen. Instead, St-Pierre retired from the sport when it became clear a fight with Nurmagomedov was out of the question and the lightweight champion went on to defend his title successfully against Dustin Poirier. Now with Poirier no longer in the title picture, it seems that Dana White may be having a change of heart about the GSP-Khabib superfight.

Answering fan questions during a recent Instagram Live session, White was asked whether now that Khabib has unified his lightweight title with Poirier’s interim belt, if the GSP superfight could happen and White gave a very different answer than he previously gave.

“Tony fight has to happen first,” White said. “Tony Ferguson vs. Khabib and obviously if Khabib wins that fight, the GSP fight would be a fun fight to make for sure.”

This is a pretty major change for White who previously was against the creation of the fight in general and then deferred to the fact that St-Pierre was no longer an active competitor in the sport. But the fans have still been showing an interest in the fight and St-Pierre recently posted a picture to Instagram of himself looking pretty lean following a 72-hour water fast. In fact, he looked so lean that Nurmagomedov even commented on the picture asking the former two-division champion if he was looking to make 155 pounds. And according to Dana White, that isn’t that far-fetched because he heard through the grapevine that GSP currently weighs less than Nurmagomedov.

“I don’t know if you guys have seen pictures of GSP but he’s looking really, really, really f*cking skinny right now,” White said. “He just did like a cleanse or something. He’s in ridiculous shape still but he’s super lean. I think right now he’s ten pounds lighter than Khabib is. Something like that, somebody told me, so that’s pretty crazy.”

It’s easy to see why White may have changed his tune on the superfight: there are very few fights the UFC could put together right now that would draw more attention. Unfortunately for White, St-Pierre has said that he’s happily retired and doesn’t envision making another comeback to MMA. Of course in MMA, things like retirements can be notoriously short-lived, just so long as the price to come back is right.

Nurmagomedov will presumably face Tony Ferguson for his next title defense sometime next year. After that, maybe then we’ll get the superfight everyone has been clamoring for.

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VIDEO STEW

The A-Side Live Chat.

An interview with Eugene Bareman.

Embedded 3.

MMW is back at it again.

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LISTEN UP

The Co-Main Event. Discussing all things UFC 243 related.

UFC Unfiltered. Interviews with Chris Weidman and Michelle Waterson.

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SOCIAL MEDIA BOUILLABAISSE

So mad.

Also mad.

Ouch. Dustin with the swing and miss.

Izzy better watch out or he’s gonna piss off the true middleweight champ.

Guess we know who Jack Swagger’s next opponent is gonna be.

Kevin Lee training with GSP.

Respect.

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FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS

Phil Davis (20-5) vs. Karl Albrektsson (9-2); Bellator 231, Oct. 25.

Mauricio Rua (26-11) vs. Sam Alvey (33-13, 1 NC); UFC Sao Paulo, Nov. 16.

Renan Barao (34-8, 1 NC) vs. Douglas Silva de Andrade (25-3, 1 NC); UFC Sao Paulo, Nov. 16.

Warlley Alves (13-3) vs. Randy Brown (11-3); UFC Sao Paulo, Nov. 16.

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FINAL THOUGHTS

Thanks for reading and see y’all tomorrow.

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EXIT POLL

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