Khabib Nurmagomedov shocked the UFC fraternity when he announced his retirement from MMA in October 2020.

The Eagle, who had dominated the lightweight division for many a year, promptly hung up his gloves following his victory over Justin Gaethje.

Khabib walked away from the fight game with a remarkable record of 29-0 and has shown no desire to pursue the 30-fight-unbeaten mark.

UFC president Dana White, however, is not about to let one of his biggest stars just go quietly into the night.

Ever since the retirement announcement, White has refused to concede that we have seen the last of Khabib inside the famous Octagon.

The pair have met on multiple occasions with White dreaming of a massive Khabib comeback event.

Now, White is showing even more signs that he is confident Khabib will make a return in the not-so-distant future.

Ahead of a stacked UFC 259 this weekend, White confirmed that Khabib would not be stripped of his title just yet.

"We're going to have dinner on Saturday or Sunday and just talk and see," White began.

"I think a lot of these fights have to play out in that division. From [number nine] all the way up to number one, they're incredible fights.

"You can mix or match them any way you want and they're really good fights.

"Let some of these play out to see who will fight next for the title. I think if Khabib is interested, he'll take the fight.

"You don't see Khabib saying, 'Leave me alone. Stop asking me'. So there's still a chance. That's the way I look at it."

The biggest issue facing White is that not a single fighter in the lightweight division represents any sort of real challenge to Khabib at the moment.

Conor McGregor fell out of contention after his loss to Dustin Poirier while Poirier himself is one of Khabib's former victims.

White is going to have to come up with a solution for Khabib, with the Dagestan warrior fighter in no rush to end his retirement for a fight that won't be seen as a challenge.

Even for White, with what he has available in the division, that might prove to be too tall an order.