Georges St-Pierre Still Wants Michael Bisping Fight, but Comeback Ends on First Loss
Georges St-Pierre recently broke his silence about why he wouldn't fight until November, but he still has his sights set on a fight with Michael Bisping, regardless of what UFC president Dana White has to say.
White had initially had expectations of St-Pierre and Bisping fighting at UFC 213 in July, but they date constantly got pushed back to the point that St-Pierre said that he wouldn't fight until after October. At that point, White declared that he was pulling St-Pierre from the Bisping bout.
As it turned out, White's plan to put Bisping up against No. 1 middleweight contender Yoel Romero wouldn't happen either. Bisping is still recovering from a knee injury, so White declared an interim middleweight fight between Romero and No. 3 contender Robert Whittaker.
With Bisping still injured and unlikely to fight anytime soon, St-Pierre, who is recovering from eye surgery, wants to move forward with plans to challenge the middleweight champion, hopefully in November.
“I'm still hoping that the fight will work. Michael Bisping is the best opponent for me,” St-Pierre said on Tuesday's edition of “The MMA Hour.”
Although White has said the fight is off, St-Pierre said that he's only heard that as it has been reported in the news. UFC officials haven't told him that directly. And although it was White that said it publicly, St-Pierre knows that if the UFC's head honcho sets his mind to it, the fight can still happen.
“Dana is a very emotional person. The way he is, Dana is the best promoter pound-for-pound of all time. He can sell you anything,” said St-Pierre. “If we still want to make this fight, he can make it. He can sell anything.”
Both he and Bisping have stated publicly that, despite the interim title fight, they want to fight each other. St-Pierre even said that the UFC's expected return to Madison Square Garden targeted for early November would be his ideal scenario.
“I try to come back to rewrite history to get the biggest fight as possible. And Michael Bisping, for me right now, is the guy that has the biggest stock,” St-Pierre said. “(Madison Square Garden) for me, that would be the best scenario.”
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Although St-Pierre has shared few details about his comeback – he was quite secretive about his eye injury until he felt forced to reveal it to the masses – he dropped a rather surprising bit of information about his plans on Tuesday. St-Pierre only wants to fight if he can continue his winning streak that dates back to 2007.
Though St-Pierre never uttered the word retirement when he went on his recent three-and-a-half-year hiatus, he offered it up on Tuesday, saying he is one loss away from calling it quits.
“I'm at one fight before retiring for good,” said St-Pierre. “This I can tell you for sure. If I come back and I lose, this is it for me. If I come back and lose, it is finished. If down the road I lose, I pass the torch, it's over, I'm finished.
“I don't lose very often, so I could be there for a while as well.”
