Dana White recently claimed that middleweight champion Michael Bisping would no longer be fighting Georges St-Pierre next after the Canadian superstar delayed his return until November, but ‘The Count’ isn’t convinced.
Speaking on his ‘Believe You Me’ podcast, Bisping revealed that he’s not heard from the UFC since White stated the fight was cancelled, and apparently neither has GSP.
“Honestly, it’s news to me,” Bisping said about the supposed cancellation. “I haven’t heard anything about it. I reached out to Georges and he said he hasn’t heard anything officially either, and I still haven’t heard anything from the UFC or Dana White. I know that a lot of people are complaining about this potential delay with Georges, so we’ll see what happens.
“So yeah, to clarify, as of right now, no official word from the UFC. I haven’t heard anything and Georges is still hoping for it, I’m still hoping for it. I’ll say this, I was offered the fight twice. I was offered the fight in October and it never materialized. I was offered the fight in January or February and it did materialize and we had a press conference and we shook hands and we stood there in Las Vegas and we talked a bit of shit. So okay, I haven’t had a bout agreement but that is the plan. That was the offer and I accepted and I kind of feel that once a deal is made, we should stick to it.”
That being said, Bisping can see why the UFC would want to speed things up and just have him fight No.1 contender Yoel Romero in the summer instead.
“Maybe they need an active champion to fight sooner,” Bisping mused. “I think that’s probably the top of it. I honestly don’t think they’re trying to put pressure on Georges. I think they need title fights on the pay-per-views, which I understand. I understand the frustrations from their side, just like a lot of the middleweight division are kind of frustrated. They need good title fights on their pay-per-views and waiting until November is a significant delay so I understand that. But like I said, we did have a deal so I’d like to speak with the UFC and find out what’s happening. “
However, if the UFC are hoping to get Bisping back in the cage as early as July then they might have a problem as it turns out he’s dealing with knee troubles.
“It’s a blessing in disguise because I can’t fight anytime soon,” Bisping said of St-Pierre’s comeback delay. “I can’t exercise, I can’t train. My knee is giving me many, many problems. It was doing it in Thailand, it’s still getting no better. … So long story short, what I’m getting at is I’m not going to be ready to fight anytime soon so again, that’s another reason why this plays into the perfect scenario for me.”
That news is probably not going to go down well, but it seems that as far as Bisping is concerned, a fight with GSP later in the year is still what he has his sights set on.
“[Rockhold] has no grounds to talk. Some people have, to be honest. Yoel’s been there for a bit now. I understand that. Robert Whittaker is there and Gegard as well but I’ve got a fight booked and until I hear anything differently from an official source, I’m expecting to fight GSP.“
