It hasn’t been long since the return of former UFC welterweight legend Georges St-Pierre was announced for UFC 217, but already, GSP’s immediate future has been a hot topic. One of his possible opponents include none other than UFC lightweight champion “The Notorious” Conor McGregor.
GSP is scheduled to make his middleweight debut at 36 years of age, when he takes on UFC middleweight champion Michael “The Count” Bisping in Madison Square Garden this November. The Canadian wrestler hasn’t been seen inside the Octagon since his November 2013 triumph over Johny Hendricks. He left at the peak of his abilities and decided to pursue other personal projects.
Where has Georges St-Pierre been all this time?
For those not in the know, GSP decided to leave the fight game behind and chase an acting career in Hollywood. Over the last few years, GSP has starred in over six feature films, including Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Kickboxer: Vengeance. While his showbusiness career has done okay for the most part, his real success has been undeniably in the Octagon.
At the height of his powers, GSP was as dominant of a champion as they come. Sitting only behind the legendary Anderson Silva in rank at the time on most pound-for-pound lists, GSP remains one of the greatest welterweight champions to ever do it. Silva’s career, of course, has been recently marred by doping scandals in the past few years. This in the eyes of many has bolstered GSP’s own stock in the grand scheme of things.
Up until about a year ago, many fans wondered whether they would ever see GSP back in the cage again in their lifetime. Most people already wrote off his career and never expected to see GSP compete again. But it seems, even at the age of 36, the itch of competition is too tough to ignore.
Now, we are on the brink of one of the most anticipated comebacks in recent memory.
Dana White Wants Conor McGregor vs Georges St-Pierre in 2018
One of the biggest matchups to be made pits the UFC’s biggest star in Conor McGregor against GSP. McGregor, of course, is the highest paid MMA fighter of all time. He’s raked in more money than anybody in the game. Just last month, he took home more than $100-million dollars in a megabout against boxing legend Floyd Mayweather.
So you can expect that a bout with GSP would do massive numbers, especially given GSP’s own following. UFC President Dana White spoke to TSN recently regarding the potential matchup.
“GSP would need to defend his title first at 185 [pounds] and Conor has some business to handle himself. It would be a year and a half down the road before we would even talk about that,” White said about the fight.
Although he didn’t outright say it, White’s objective is clear. And that’s to make this match a reality in 2018.
“Everybody’s intriguing for Conor McGregor. I mean, if you look at Conor McGregor at 145, 155 and 170 [pounds], everything is intriguing.”
“I don’t know where that (venue) would be,” White teased about a destination for McGregor vs. St-Pierre. “We could do it in Croke Park in Ireland, where there’s like 100,000 seats. You could do it here in Toronto, where we had 56,000 people, and you could do it in Vegas, which is always good, too.”
