With Georges St-Pierre now officially back in the UFC after signing a new multi-fight deal, his long-time coach Firas Zahabi is now licking his chops at the possibility of some of the big superfights that may now be on the menu in the Octagon.
“My ideal scenario, I don’t know if it’s still up for grabs, but I was really happy when there was a buzzing of Bisping or McGregor,” Zahabi said on ‘The MMA Hour’ yesterday. “I thought those two would be two epic fights. One, he would go a little lower [in weight]; one, he would go a little higher. But those are really, really intriguing fights. Of course, Tyron Woodley, he’s the [welterweight] champion and et cetera, but he has his fight with ‘Wonderboy’ [Thompson]. And if ‘Wonderboy’ wins, then they’ll have a trilogy. And of course we don’t want to fight with ‘Wonderboy,’ we go way back together.
“So I think the welterweight title is not really something he (St-Pierre) is thinking about right now because of the current landscape, but there is always the 185-pound belt. And of course, McGregor is such a mega-star that if you put those two on a main event, I don’t think that anybody in the world wouldn’t watch that. I think that even non-MMA fans would watch that. But again, I don’t do the match-ups, I don’t do the managing, I’m just talking as a trainer.”
McGregor appears to be focused on setting up a boxing match with Floyd Mayweather Jr at the moment, so that idea is likely to be put on the backburner for now, though it certainly sounds like the sort of fight the Irishman would be interested in when he does finally return to the Octagon.
On the other hand, middleweight champion Michael Bisping has already made it crystal clear that he’d jump at the chance to fight the fomer long-time welterweight champion and all-time great of the sport as he’s looking for a major payday to secure his family’s future before he hangs up his gloves.
““The only reason I’m saying Georges St-Pierre is because I know he wants to fight me, and I was offered a fight with him. That’s the only reason he’s in my mind,” Bisping told MMAFighting.com a few days ago. “If I wasn’t offered a fight with him [in 2016], I wouldn’t be thinking Georges St-Pierre. But that just got that carrot dangled in front of my face of a several-million-dollar payday. Call me stupid, but I want that f*cking carrot. I want that several million dollars in my bank account. I want it for my children’s sake, for my family, for when I’m retired so we can still live a good life.
“That’s why I’m doing it. Not because I’m trying to rob the UFC, or rob the fans of the No. 1 contender, or do wrong to Yoel Romero. I want it for my family’s sake. So in a perfect world, I fight Georges St-Pierre, I will beat Georges St-Pierre, I will not be injured in that fight Georges because Georges never injures anybody in a fight, and then I will do a quick turnaround, within six weeks I will fight Yoel Romero. That’s what he wants, that’s what he’ll get. I’ll guarantee you right now, hand on my heart.”
