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22nd February 2017
10:02am GMT
During a wide-ranging interview with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour, Zahabi said his 'ideal scenario' would be for St-Pierre to take on either UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping or McGregor. It is likely that any fight against the Dubliner would be at a catchweight of either 160 or 165lbs.
St-Pierre vacated the welterweight title [now held by Woodley] in late 2013 but Zahabi is not certain if his fighter would be overly keen on chasing and defending titles again. He said:
"I thought those two [Bisping and McGregor] would be two epic fights. One, he would go a little lower; one, he would go a little higher. But those are really, really intriguing fights. "Of course, Tyron Woodley, he’s the champion and et cetera, but he has his fight with ‘Wonderboy’ [Stephen Thompson]. And if Wonderboy wins, then they’ll have a trilogy. And of course we don’t want to fight with Wonderboy as we go way back together." Zahabi added: "Of course, McGregor is such a mega-star that if you put those two on a main event, I don’t think that anybody in the world wouldn’t watch that. I think that even non-MMA fans would watch that."McGregor already boasts the UFC pay-per-view buy record of more than 1.6 million for his UFC 202 victory over Nate Diaz. Were he to take on St-Pierre, in the opinion of Joe Rogan and many others within the business, it would smash all previous records. Speaking soon after UFC 202, last year, St-Pierre told The MMA Hour he would be interested in taking on 'The Notorious'. He declared:
"Look, I do not run after these guys. I do not run after him but if he calls me out and if it's something the fans want - I know he is a big, huge draw - then I am am interested. "I think I can beat him. I can beat both of these guys [McGregor and Diaz] too. As a fighter, I'm confident of beating them because I think I am the best."Were such a fight to take place, there is also the added spice of McGregor's derisory comments about the Canadian at his recent 'An Experience With... ' event in Manchester. Asked about St-Pierre's role in setting up a new fighter's union, McGregor proclaimed:
"I’m like, what the fuck are you talking about? The only reason [St-Pierre is] standing in the middle of that union is because you couldn’t get the deal you want. You’re the fakest of everyone up there."This story is practically writing itself. A mighty option, were any Floyd Mayweather Jr. boxing bout to indefinitely stall.
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