UFC Turned Down Khabib vs. GSP Non-Title Fight

[ninjion]

He's right though. If the UFC thought Khabib would win, they'd let the fight happen so Khabib could steal some of GSP's clout.

 

[BFoe]

I get you and agree in part as a fan I really don't care if the fight was not for a belt, the way the UFC treats belts it wouldn't really matter anyhow. From a promotion stand point I somewhat understand they don't wanna risk their champ losing to a part-timer, but so what? Doesn't make Khabib any less of a fighter losing to the likes of GSP in fact it could actually be used as a selling point do a rematch and sell it as for real fight with the belt on the line this time.

But GSP at this stage just wants to do specialty fights with selected opponents. If GSP was to win with no belt it would be talked about for a few months but he's not in the UFC mix or on the roaster. Khabib goes back to be being unbeaten within the current ranks of his division I wouldn't see him as any less than the tough human sob that he already is and still very sell able for promoter and sponsor.

Yeah, but that’s the thing: somewhere along the line, they have to fight for the title. The champ is supposed to the best, and I think they draw best (PPV numbers-wise) when they’ve had multiple defenses and we want to see who else they can beat, or cheer for someone to beat them. If GSP isn’t gonna hang around and rematch him, or defend a belt, it just doesn’t make sense to book it, If GSP won their non-title fight, you’d have a champ that we know isn’t the best, so who cares?

 

[Willie]

UFC let Conor run away with the belt for 18 months without a hint of defence and now they are scard that GSP would never defend.
At least when GSP won the middle weight belt, he gave it up 3 weeks later, he didnt hold the division unlike that certain Irish fighter.

 

[Hades86]

He fought an ex-LHW for the title. Get a grip.

Yea better to say ex LHW instead of saying Bisping.... We all know why that fight happened.

 

[daltonames]

In before GSP fans try to convince me why UFC should most definitely make 169lbs weightclass for GSP and Khabib to compete in, and why it's ok to break contract not to defend your belt in case you win.

Well, in fairness. GSP is a pretty straightforward guy. He gave himself ulcerative colitis getting up to MW. I'm sure he didn't see that coming when he agreed to defend the belt. I'm sure he intended to defend it, just wasn't going to sacrifice his long term health to do it.

 

[markys00]

Just make a two or three fight deal and include a clause that if GSP wins and doesn’t defend he gets fined 1 million. Sure he’d defend then.

i dont think thats legal.

anyhow.. ufc would NEVER make this fight unless khabib lost. gsp is no longer a company man. he fights every now and then, and khabib is a great russian/middle eastern person and mma is huge there at the moment.

 

[EndlessCritic]

As a fan, I don’t care. If I was a promoter, there’s no way in hell that I’d book that. Why risk having your champ beaten with no long term payoff?

Yeah. Sort of like how Canelo's career was really hurt after he lost to Mayweather.

 

[BFoe]

Yeah. Sort of like how Canelo's career was really hurt after he lost to Mayweather.

That was a title fight. And correct me if wrong, because I totally admit that I’m not a boxing expert, but didn’t Mayweather defend the titles he won in that fight against Maidana?
Additionally, boxing has approximately 16 trillion titles. An entire division won’t be held up like it would in MMA.

 

[suffersystem]

GSP sounds completely reasonable here and understand exactly why the UFC wouldn't do it, yet people somehow find a way to bitch about GSP.

 

[rearnakedchoke]

UFC has to protect their undefeated champ in khabib. Imagine gsp takes out khabib and khabib ends up being lightweight goat. Dana saved him and the ufc some embarrassment.

 

[IRENICUS]

but the ufc is trying to make dc-stipe 3, and we all know dc is retiring afterwards, win or lose. i think the difference is dana loves dc.

DC already beat Stipe once.
Stipe is not a dominant champ, Khabib is undefeated.
There are no clear contenders for HW title.
Plenty of contenders at LW.
GSP broke their deal once already.
I could go on.

 

[Bogeyman]

Would be a snorefest. Glad it didn't happen.

 

[Paynebringer]

Yeah, but that’s the thing: somewhere along the line, they have to fight for the title. The champ is supposed to the best, and I think they draw best (PPV numbers-wise) when they’ve had multiple defenses and we want to see who else they can beat, or cheer for someone to beat them. If GSP isn’t gonna hang around and rematch him, or defend a belt, it just doesn’t make sense to book it, If GSP won their non-title fight, you’d have a champ that we know isn’t the best, so who cares?

Conor won two belts in two different divisions and everybody knew he wasn't the best. But he skirted that question by actually never defending them belts. But I do get and understand your point I just think most real fight fanz know GSP as no interest in sticking around and going through the fight grind again. I don't see much difference between GSP fighting Bisping and him fighting Khabib. GSP won vacated and the fight world moved on without a hitch I find fight fanz have a very short memory usually lasts until the next big fight, but as I said I totally get where you're coming from it's just a fight I would like to see regardless if there's a belt on the line I just wanna see two highly skilled fighters faceoff.

 

[AnotherOldGuy]

In before GSP fans try to convince me why UFC should most definitely make 169lbs weightclass for GSP and Khabib to compete in, and why it's ok to break contract not to defend your belt in case you win.

Not sure its GSP fans that''ll argue for a new weight division, most don't seem to care if he fights for a title or not. Some will definitely argue that its okay to break contracts, given how they say it was okay for him to get a title fight at MW against Bisping despite not having fought (or even trained from how slow and tired he looked against Bisping before that left hook) for four years, and never having fought at MW before.

On the other hands, that's just what fans do. Woodley's fans wanted GSP to fight Woodley for the WW title, despite the fact that after four years of not fighting (or training) GSP absolutely didn't deserve at title fight at WW either. Fans want their fighter to make money for some reason (ie why else would Woodley's fans want to gift GSP an unearned title shot at WW?).

 

[AnotherOldGuy]

Just make a two or three fight deal and include a clause that if GSP wins and doesn’t defend he gets fined 1 million. Sure he’d defend then.

I'm not a lawyer, but I suspect a contract like that wouldn't hold up in court, because the defense would argue you can't force someone to risk their health (ie get into the cage) if they don't want to. Probably the best they could do is take a million off of any fight GSP did after that if he ever fought again.

 

[AnotherOldGuy]

I'm surprised GSP didn't try and fight Mighty Mouse when he was in the UFC. At least he draws the line somewhere.....

The days of fighters not wanting to fight smaller guys are long gone. Anderson wanted GSP to go up in weight to fight him (and a lot of fans supported him calling out a smaller fighter). And then wanted Conor to go up in weight to fight him. Cyborg wanted Rousey to go up in weight to fight her. Fighters are in it for the money, and sometimes the money is in fighting a smaller guy.

 

[Rod Farva]

Dana’s claim was always that because there was no governing body, the UFC could always make the fights that the fans wanted.

Why not put together the fight that fans want even if it’s a non-title fight?
For me, there no fight I would buy faster than Khabib vs GSP

 

[Rod Farva]

I'm not a lawyer, but I suspect a contract like that wouldn't hold up in court, because the defense would argue you can't force someone to risk their health (ie get into the cage) if they don't want to. Probably the best they could do is take a million off of any fight GSP did after that if he ever fought again.

How about structure it this way:
Three fight deal. $5 million (or whatever number) $1 million bonus for each subsequent fight????

 

[JustOnce]

“I know Khabib wanted to have that fight,” Georges St-Pierre told ESPN. “I want it, but the thing is, if you look from the UFC’s side, I think it’s normal if I put myself in their shoes. They didn’t want to take the risk of me winning the title and then after vacating again.

"I didn’t even want it for the title, I would rather do it not for a title. For me, it was because I considered Khabib, right now, the best fighter in the world, and he wanted to fight me as well so I thought it was a good fan fight.

“They had other plans for Khabib and I understand that. They had a lot to lose and if they invest into that fight and their investment goes out after, it’s not a good move.

“In a way, I could take that as a compliment because maybe they saw me as a threat for them. That means maybe they thought I could win the fight. If they let me fight him, it’s because they think [Khabib] would have lost.”

GSP would have smashed Khabib...

 

[BFoe]

Conor won two belts in two different divisions and everybody knew he wasn't the best. But he skirted that question by actually never defending them belts. But I do get and understand your point I just think most real fight fanz know GSP as no interest in sticking around and going through the fight grind again. I don't see much difference between GSP fighting Bisping and him fighting Khabib. GSP won vacated and the fight world moved on without a hitch I find fight fanz have a very short memory usually lasts until the next big fight, but as I said I totally get where you're coming from it's just a fight I would like to see regardless if there's a belt on the line I just wanna see two highly skilled fighters faceoff.

I wonder if Dana had any inkling that Conor wasn’t gonna defend shit when he booked those fights? He could’ve had a clue, because I think Conor was a double champ before and didn’t defend shit, but that was in a much smaller promotion. I also agree about fans having a short term memory.
I just really don’t like decisions that devalue championships or champions, if that makes sense. Maybe I’m wrong, it’s just a pet peeve on mine. Like how boxing has a million belts nobody can keep track of. Or the UFC having interim title after interim title for no reason—and then stripping the interim champs for no reason, which is even worse.
GSP-Khabib would be a huge fight, but it seems like a lot of risk for the UFC (especially because Khabib is undefeated). But like someone else in this thread said, Dana is looking to book DC-Stipe 3, with DC retiring soon. That doesn’t make sense to me either.