White: Khabib will not be in attendance at UFC 257 but ‘I’ll see him again in Vegas’

“He and I are going to hook up and go to dinner in Vegas and talk again and we’ll make a decision”.

Khabib Nurmagomedov recently met with UFC president Dana White in Abu Dhabi to discuss his fighting future, but ‘The Eagle’ won’t be sticking around for UFC 257.

White, who said it will take ‘something spectacular’ to happen at UFC 257 to convince Khabib to make a comeback, will meet with the former UFC lightweight champion again in Las Vegas after the pay-per-view has concluded on Saturday.

“He’s corning on Wednesday and then he leaves. He leaves and goes to Vegas. So I will have the fight and fly home on Sunday and I’ll see him again in Vegas,” White said during the UFC Fight Island 7 Post-fight Press Conference (h/t Jeff Cain of Yahoo).

“Those fights will have played out. He and I are going to hook up and go to dinner in Vegas and talk again and we’ll make a decision. One thing that he did say is, ‘I’ll never hold up the division”.

Khabib will be keeping a close eye on the main event between Dustin Poirier and Conor McGregor as well as the co-main event between Michael Chandler and Dan Hooker. If something spectacular does, indeed, happen, Nurmagomedov could make a comeback. If not, the Russian will walk away from the sport for good.

“He just said that he won’t hold up the division, so he’s either going to fight somebody, or he’s going to walk away,” White said.

Khabib retired at 29-0 following his submission win over Justin Gaethje at UFC 254 and is widely considered one of the greatest fighters in UFC history.

UFC 257: Poirier vs. McGregor II takes place this Saturday, Jan. 23 at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.