The on-again, off-again return of Ultimate Fighting Championship icon Georges St-Pierre is seemingly off. Again.
Six days after the former UFC welterweight champion posted a video on Twitter saying he would fight middleweight champion Michael Bisping “anytime after October,” UFC president Dana White now says the company can’t keep the 185-pound division in flux any longer.
While top-10 contenders such as Yoel Romero, Luke Rockhold and Robert Whittaker were left waiting and wondering about their championship prospects, UFC had attempted to put together a Bisping-GSP bout for last December in Toronto and then targeted UFC 213 on July 8 in Las Vegas.
“Georges St-Pierre is saying he will not be ready to compete now until November. Who knows if that’s even the case? It could be next year,” White said Thursday in an interview with Fox Sports Australia.
“Georges St-Pierre was coming back. Bisping-St-Pierre, they both wanted that fight. We asked Yoel to step aside, he did. It doesn’t look like (Bisping vs. St-Pierre) is gonna happen now … So we’re not waiting for Georges St-Pierre anymore. We’re moving on with the division and Yoel Romero will get the next shot.”
Romero has a perfect 8-0 record in UFC since his debut with the company in 2013. Most recently, he defeated former champion Chris Weidman in a high-profile bout last November at New York City’s Madison Square Garden. In his eight UFC bouts, Romero has received the company’s fight of the night bonus twice, performance of the night twice and knockout of the night once.
Bisping defeated Rockhold in June 2016, taking the bout on two weeks’ notice, to win the title. He then defended the belt against Dan Henderson in October.
“(Yoel) doesn’t need to voice his opinion on why he needs a title shot,” White told Fox Sports Australia. “He definitely deserves a title shot. He’s next in line. He’s the No.1-ranked (challenger) in the world.”
St-Pierre, who hasn’t fought since he relinquished the welterweight title after defeating Johny Hendricks in 2013, held the UFC 170-pound crown twice and has won a UFC-record 12 title bouts. St-Pierre has 19 career UFC wins, behind only the 20 victories of Bisping.
UFC, even without a confirmed date, held a press conference in March with St-Pierre and Bisping to promote the expected title bout. At the press conference, St-Pierre said this was the right moment for him to return.
“Right now, I don’t hold the belt. Nobody’s waiting for me. I can do what I want,” he said. “Right now, the guy who has the highest stock is Michael Bisping … It was the perfect time to do it.
“I know approximately roughly which direction I want to take … I want to make the biggest fights possible. I want to make history. Right now I’m focusing on the short-term goals, which is this guy.”
In his video posted to Twitter last week, St-Pierre said he cleared “my entire schedule to get ready for training camp after the summer. So I can fight you anytime after October. You pick the date. Let’s get it on.”
That wasn’t good enough for White.
“I made this GSP fight. We did a press conference. The thing was supposed to happen in July. Michael Bisping is going to have to defend his title now,” White told Fox Sports Australia.
“We’re not waiting for GSP.”
