Georges St-Pierre’s comeback fight will be against Michael Bisping for the middleweight title, and it looks like he’s going to be sticking around in the division for a while if he wins.
“I have to defend my title,” St-Pierre told Ariel Helwani on ‘The MMA Hour’ show yesterday. “It’s written in my contract. I have to defend my title if I win.”
With that being the case, St-Pierre would likely be on a collision course with Robert Whittaker, who holds the interim middleweight title, but is currently out of action for a lengthy period of time due to a knee injury.
“You never know in advance, but if we follow the logic, that’s what the UFC told me. That’s what they signed me for.”
Originally it had been speculated that St-Pierre would likely drop back down to the welterweight division he once ruled after the fight with Bisping, but it seems the UFC were able to convince him to stick around at 185lbs, at least for a little while longer.
“[Staying at middleweight] wasn’t my initial plan, but I understand the UFC’s point of view,” St-Pierre said. “They want to protect their titles. They don’t want to delay the defense of their titles, because they don’t want to make people wait.”
St-Pierre long resisted fans urges to move up to middleweight during his long reign as the 170lb champion, but whereas he used to walk around at 186lbs prior to his cut in those days, these days he’s bulked up to 198lbs, which makes the move more viable physically for him.
That being said, it’s still a big risk to return at a new weight class after a four year layoff from fighting, but the way GSP sees it, the juice is worth the squeeze in this instance.
“I wanted my risk to be worth it. I wanted to try something that I never attempted before. For me, fighting Michael Bisping is the most rewarding thing I can do right now.”
