St-Pierre, who returned after a four-year retirement to submit 185-pound Michael Bisping at UFC 217 to crown the middleweight title at Madison Square Garden.
St-Pierre repeatedly said he would defend the belt and even agreed to such an obligation in his contract.
Shortly afterward, GSP vacated his UFC middleweight championship 33 days after claiming it at UFC 217 the shortest title reign in company history and is recovering from a battle with ulcerative colitis and contemplating his fighting future.
Many pros react to GSP’s sudden decision of vacating the belt among is the man he submitted at UFC 217 Michael Bisping recently speaking on his Believe You Me podcast, called GSP a “Prick” and discussed the middleweight division situation. (Via MMA Fighting)
“He’s a prick,” said Bisping. “He’s a prick, god bless him.”
“I’m gonna be brutally honest here, it’s a double-edged sword. It’s a good thing and a bad thing. By the way, Dana White threw me under the bus when he first found out. He wasn’t happy with Georges and he said, ‘Yeah, well he cherry-picked Bisping.’ That doesn’t do me any favors! He didn’t cherry-pick me, but I did say that. I said Georges wanted to fight me because he thought I was an easy fight and this and that, and he got the win, and then he vacated the belt. Now he vacated the belt because apparently he had to go to the hospital after our fight and he thought he was gonna be paralyzed and he had a bad neck and all this type of stuff. I don’t know. He just doesn’t fancy doing it again.
“In one respect, it’s good for me because – as an MMA fighter, as a boxer, whatever it is – if somebody beats you, you never want them to lose again because if they get beat, then the person that beat them, it has a negative impact on you. Like, ‘Oh, they could have beaten me as well.’ So he’s never going to fight at 185 again, that’s good. I’m the only person at 185 he ever beat, nobody at 185 is ever gonna beat him. So cheers Georges, thanks for that. But at the same time, it looks like a bit of a bitch move, you know what I mean? So there’s pluses and negatives.”
St-Pierre’s name regarded among the best fighter and after scoring a historic win over Bisping, GSP’s name further goes down in the list of greatest of all time like Jon Jones and Mighty Mouse. It seems like St-Pierre have a habit of vacating the belt, as back in 2013 when he earns a win over Johny Hendricks at UFC 167, a month later he announced that he is vacating the welterweight title. He had left the sport on somewhat of a bad foot.
“He even said that,” said Bisping. “Remember he said in the press conferences, he said if he lost he was never gonna try again and he was gonna retire. I don’t know anything about Georges’ bank account but I’m assuming it’s pretty swollen, it’s got plenty of money in there. So he came back, he got another belt, made history, made a ton of money, made more than me, the prick, and good for him. It’s actually really smart. Why should he carry on fighting? Legacy is more important and he’s got a great legacy there. So from a business standpoint, it’s actually a really smart move. From the UFC’s perspective, of course it’s frustrating. It’s annoying. Opens the doors for Whittaker versus Rockhold but it’s annoying because remember, GSP did that after the Johny Hendricks fight. He didn’t defend the belt, walked away, Dana was pissed then, and now he’s doing the same thing now.”
Bisping said he intends to retire after his next fight when the UFC returns to London for UFC Fight Night London on March 17.
What are your thoughts on Bisping’s statement about GSP?
