Dana White is hopeful he can convince Khabib Nurmagomedov to fight again by luring him onto The Ultimate Fighter as a coach with rival Tony Ferguson.
The Russian announced his retirement from the sport with a record of 29-0 after defeating Justin Gaethje in 2020 when his mother requested he give up fighting following his dad's passing. And he has vowed never to return, turning down major offers from the UFC for big-money title defences, as well as a nine-figure boxing deal from Floyd Mayweather.
But he has remained open to other opportunities as a coach and promoter, bringing Russian outfit Eagle FC to America with a major expansion over the past year. And White hopes that getting he and rival Ferguson together to coach on the UFC's reality show could light the fire that brings him back to fighting.
When hosts of the Spinning Backfist podcast asked White about the possible coaching match-up, he asked: "Do you like it? So you’re telling me, you guys as fans, media, whatever it might be, like the idea of two guys possibly coaching that wouldn’t fight each other?"
Throughout the show's history, two teams have been coached by fighters who almost always end up squaring off at the live finale in Las Vegas. There have been a few famous examples where that hasn't happened, such as Conor McGregor's year with Urijah Faber or when Chael Sonnen coached against Wanderlei Silva, but the UFC prefer to have coaches' fights be at least a possibility.
"I’ll consider it," White continued after gauging interest from host Robbie Fox, who is a diehard fan of the sport. "Congratulations. Okay. I will absolutely entertain that idea. Hopefully they'll get p****d off enough at each other that they'll actually want to fight. I'm in, you sold me."
The rivalry between Nurmagomedov and former interim champion Ferguson is the stuff of UFC legend, and provided arguably the greatest 'what if' in the sport's history. The pair were scheduled to fight five times, and got as far as days into fight week, but each time it fell through.
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Nurmagomedov was injured first time around in 2015, before Ferguson picked up a knock heading into their second attempt. They almost made it to weigh-ins at the third time of asking when the Russian was hospitalised by his weight cut, before Ferguson suffered a freak injury during a trip at Fox Studios while promoting their fourth attempt.
Finally, the pair were matched up in April of 2020, which was scuppered by the coronavirus pandemic causing global shutdowns. When the UFC returned, Ferguson lost his interim title fight with Justin Gaethje and Nurmagomedov retired following his win over the same opponent months later, and so the feud was never settled.
But there has been massive fan interest in bringing the pair back together for a new season of the reality show. Currently, the programme is being coached by bantamweight top two Julianna Pena and Amanda Nunes.
