Earlier this month, UFC president Dana White revealed a lightweight slugfest between former UFC middleweight and welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre and Nate Diaz is in works for UFC 227 on Aug 4 from Los Angeles, California.
Today Former UFC two-division champion Georges St-Pierre appeared on the “JRE MMA Show” and said he has zero interest in a proposed lightweight fight against Nate Diaz, emphasize other challenges were his preference for a comeback. (Via MMAJunkie)
“They said it was a done deal,” St-Pierre said. “It wasn’t a done deal. Not on my part. I don’t think it was on Nate Diaz’s part, as well. He says it’s not his fight; it’s his brother’s fight.”
In the light of this matchup, a former UFC lightweight title challenger Nate Diaz accused GSP of using steroids ahead of his title defense against older brother Nick Diaz at UFC 158 and shuts down St-Pierre bout,‘Fight yourself, cheater.’
Georges St-Pierre mocked Nick Diaz accusations and said: “I think (Nick Diaz) has a problem of (conspiracies).”
St-Pierre is out of action since capturing a middleweight title via submission win over Michael Bisping at UFC 217 last November, and shortly after the fight, GSP vacated the strap, citing complications with colitis.
St-Pierre indeed praised Diaz, but he doesn’t think fighting someone of Diaz’s ilk at 155 pounds makes sense. But he would likely fight again and that dropping down to 155-pound is a real possibility.
“Nate Diaz is an incredible fighter, very well rounded,” St-Pierre said. “If you put yourself in my shoes there’s nothing good that can come out of it except for money, and money isn’t the only thing that drives me. If I beat Nate Diaz decisively, most people will say, ‘He took an easy fight.’”
“The (critics) will say, ‘He’s a bully. He fought a smaller guy that competes at a smaller (division),’” St-Pierre said. “A lot of (lightweight) guys are bigger than me right now. He’s about the same size as me, but because I compete at 170 for most of my career, it will make me look bad. It will make me look like a bully. And this is if I win decisively.
“If I win decisively, and it’s a war back and forth, people will say, ‘Ah, he sucks.’ If I get beat? Oh my God, forget it. For my legacy, it’s the end of the work I put in. It’s finished. And I could have a bad day.”
St-Pierre said he would only return for an intriguing and more challenging fight or something he has never done before.
“I want to do something that … at 155, I never did it before,” St-Pierre said. “The title, or beating a certain guy that’s on the rise. It could be Khabib (Nurmagomedov), (or) if there’s another guy that is unbeatable.
“If I come back like, ‘Georges is never going to beat him.’ You say never, I’m going to love it. When Dana said I would never come back, it excited me. If it’s never been done before, and it means if I do it, that will excite me. There’s a lot of things that turn me on in life. It’s women, dinosaurs and this. That really makes me go crazy.”
Dana White said he is meeting an Irishman this weekend at UFC Liverpool, so there is a possibility of UFC book a Khabib Nurmagomedov against Conor McGregor later this year, and the winner could potentially face GSP.
Who do you think St-Pierre should fight upon his return to famed Octagon?
