Jake Paul Tries to Lure Khabib Out of Retirement — Khabib Trolls Him Back

Jake Paul thought he could talk the greatest lightweight in MMA history into unretiring. It went about as well as you'd expect. Backstage at PFL New York last Friday, Paul cornered Khabib Nurmagomedov — the 29-0 UFC Hall of Famer who hasn't fought since 2020 — and pitched him on a comeback under the newly merged MVP banner. A few days later, Khabib's answer arrived via Telegram, and it wasn't a yes.

The context: Paul's Most Valuable Promotions announced last week it's absorbing the PFL into a single combat-sports outfit under the MVP name. The rebrand won't be official until 2027, but Paul and co-founder Nakisa Bidarian were ringside in New York to start throwing their weight around. That card was headlined by a lightweight title fight between Usman Nurmagomedov and Archie Colgan — and where Usman goes, cousin and head coach Khabib follows.

So Paul made his move. He told Khabib the merger would change MMA "forever" by giving fighters a better place to work, and that Khabib fighting for MVP would monumentally shift the sport. It's a nice sales line. It also assumes the man is even remotely interested in fighting again, which he is not.

Khabib's Answer

Khabib called the merger good for the sport — polite, diplomatic, the kind of thing you say to a business partner's ally. His response to the actual recruitment pitch wasn't shown in Paul's YouTube video. But a few days later he posted on Telegram, mocking the whole exchange: something along the lines of "my face when they start trying to persuade me to come back." Translation: don't hold your breath.

This isn't new. Khabib walked away in 2020 after submitting Justin Gaethje at UFC 254 to defend his lightweight title and go out at 29-0, a perfect record no one else in the division can touch. The retirement came shortly after his father Abdulmanap passed, and Khabib has repeated the same message ever since — he's done, and he means it. Gaethje, for what it's worth, now holds that same lightweight strap at 28-5, having stopped Ilia Topuria in the fourth.

As for Paul, the pitch says more about his ambitions than Khabib's future. He's 12-2 as a boxer with seven knockouts, coming off a sixth-round stoppage loss to Anthony Joshua, and he still plans to cross over into MMA himself. Dana White, meanwhile, doesn't see the MVP-PFL project as real competition for the UFC. Recruiting the greatest lightweight ever would've made a statement. Instead, Paul got a meme.