Dana White, president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, said that if Khabib Nurmagomedov is victorious at UFC 254 he'll be the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
Khabib's lightweight championship fight against Justin Gaethje is the main event at UFC 254, which takes place this Saturday in Abu Dhabi.
“Khabib is looking down the barrel of not only the greatest to ever do it in this division, but listen, I think if he beats Justin on Saturday, he’s the No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter in the world and he’s on his way to GOAT status," said White during the pre-fight press conference.
“He’s one of the biggest stars in the sport. Khabib’s videos have generated 222 million views. The content that features him, over 100 million video views just this year alone, just on Facebook.
"He’s broken records on Instagram. I could just rattle off numbers all day. He’s by far the No. 1 most played character in the video game globally. By a long shot.
“The numbers just go on and on. I could go on for days. The kid’s broken a lot of records.”
To achieve the no. 1 pound-for-pound rank, Khabib will have to supplant former two-time UFC light heavyweight champion Jon "Bones" Jones, who became the UFC's youngest champion in 2013 and has been the top-ranked pound-for-pound fighter since August 2019.
Khabib, however, has maintained an unbeaten record in a lightweight division that's stocked with impressive challengers, something which White made note of.
Look at how many fights this guy has and he’s still undefeated, and this is a nasty, nasty weight division.
But it doesn't look like it'll be any mean feat for Khabib. Gaethje is the current interim lightweight champion and has an impressive 22-2 record, with 19 of those victories coming from knockouts.