This is going to be a massive fight! Will Georges St-Pierre be able to continue his fantastic career come back against interim king Robert Whittaker?
Former welterweight champion and new middleweight king Georges St-Pierre is BACK! Having sat inactive for four years, GSP came back to a division he’d never competed in at UFC 217.
Champions have been and gone in his absence. Divisions have altered massively, but few have drawn the attention and acclaim St-Pierre has. When they needed him most, GSP came through for the UFC with a spectacular performance.
Losing would have almost certainly ended GSP’s storied career, but he made sure the victory was his. Dropping Bisping with a clobbering left hook, St-Pierre finished with elbows and a rear naked choke.
A credit to the belt, ‘The Count’ refused to tap and instead visited the shadow realm for a moment. When he finally awoke, a new champion stood in the octagon.
Coming Up Next…
Of course, you’d assume that interim champion Robert Whittaker was next, and you’d be right. Although Tyron Woodley tried making a case for a super fight, UFC president Dana White was having none of that business.
TJ Dillashaw is likely to face Demetrious Johnson in a super fight, but that’s more due to White’s dislike of Johnson than his love for TJ. Similarly, Woodley is feeling the brunt of White’s favoritism, but for once it’s yielding a positive result.
Speaking to press after UFC 217, White confirmed interim champ Robert Whittaker and GSP will collide in a unification match next:
“It’s going to be Whittaker,” White said at the post-fight conference (transcript via MMAFighting.com). “I don’t even know what’s going on with GSP. He was transported to the hospital, so he’s got to get stitches on his nose. If he doesn’t take Bisping down and keeps this fight standing, he comes out of that fight with almost no damage.
Bisping did some serious work from his back and split his nose open and had him bleeding all over his face. [St-Pierre] took some big shots from the top position and if he didn’t do that he probably would’ve come out unscratched. So yeah, he’s got to go to the hospital right now. We’ll see how he is and what the status is with him.”
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“No, (I haven’t seen anything like it),” White said. “Even Ali didn’t look the same after a three-year layoff, you know. He was still a great fighter, but he didn’t look the same as he did before the layoff and very few people have come back from long layoffs. Not only come back and win in their own division, but move up to 185 pounds and fight in that division, it’s tough to do.
“It’s great to have GSP back. He came after a four-year layoff and fought a great fight tonight. People think Bisping is easy, but show me one easy fight Bisping has been in where you just go in there and walk over Bisping, you don’t do it. And GSP looked real good tonight.”
