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On the most recent episode of his Believe You Me podcast, Michael Bisping talked about latest developments in his ongoing saga with St-Pierre. Bisping clarified that he hadn’t spoken with Dana White and that nothing was official yet, but the champ seems to believe that the fight with Georges St-Pierre may actually be off and that an interim title is in the works.
“I know they’re trying to move on from the GSP fight. From my understanding, it looks like the GSP fight isn’t happening. I’ve yet to have a discussion with them about this. From my understanding, Georges still wants to fight me and I still want to fight Georges. So this is what I want to know: I want to know what the problem is. If the UFC have moved on, they got tired of waiting, whatever. But to my understanding, the fight was never gonna really happen in July anyway. I heard that from some sources right at the start. They said, ‘we’re hoping for July 8th but it’s probably not gonna be that.’
“Now they’re saying they want to do a fight in July and my knee isn’t gonna be ready in July. [St-Pierre] wasn’t gonna be ready until October, November. So to me, that plays perfectly but I know the UFC wants me to fight and they’re saying if I can’t fight that they’re gonna do an interim title fight.”
Though Bisping and St-Pierre were set to fight each other sometime this year, the former welterweight champion came out saying he wouldn’t be ready to fight until October, which prompted the threat from White to cancel the bout. Bisping then came out saying he was still dealing with a lingering knee issue and would be unable to defend the belt until later in the year as well. With the middleweight title now looking to be undefended for over a year at least, Bisping says that an interim title is likely in the works between No. 1 contender Yoel Romero and rising prospect Robert Whittaker.
“I’m assuming that they’re probably gonna do an interim title fight but I’ve got to speak to Dana. . . Probably Whittaker vs. Yoel, if I were the matchmakers, that’s what I’d do. Whittaker, we all know this, he’s on an absolute tear. I’ve got nothing against Robert Whittaker. Fine young man, great fighter, fights hard, got a lot of respect for him. Can’t say the same about Yoel. Yoel is certainly not on my Christmas card list. We all know my thoughts on him. He’s a scumbag, he’s a cheat, and that’s that. So if they do fight I, hope Whittaker beats the brains out of him.
“I couldn’t care less. If they want to do an interim title fight, so be it. I understand they’ve got to keep the division moving. It’s been a while and like I said, I can’t fight, certainly for the next few months anyway. So from the UFC’s side, I understand that.”
This is a bit of a change of pace from Bisping who previously stated that calls for interim title fights from Romero were “ridiculous” because he was champion and willing to defend his belt; but now that he’s injured and unable to defend, Bisping has softened his stance. Or it’s possible Bisping might not care because he is still holding out hope that his fight with St-Pierre isn’t dead yet.
“It probably isn’t happening but let’s not give up all hope,” he concluded on his podcast. “It’s not done. We’re gonna have the conversation, I’m gonna put my best foot forward that I should still fight GSP. That is my objective. When I speak to Dana, I’m gonna say ‘Dana, I feel like you owe me this fight.’ We had a deal. I fought everybody they put in front of me my whole career, I’ve been a soldier for the organization, so we’ll see what happens.”
http://www.mmafighting.com/2017/5/2...st-pierre-not-happening-expects-interim-title
“I know they’re trying to move on from the GSP fight. From my understanding, it looks like the GSP fight isn’t happening. I’ve yet to have a discussion with them about this. From my understanding, Georges still wants to fight me and I still want to fight Georges. So this is what I want to know: I want to know what the problem is. If the UFC have moved on, they got tired of waiting, whatever. But to my understanding, the fight was never gonna really happen in July anyway. I heard that from some sources right at the start. They said, ‘we’re hoping for July 8th but it’s probably not gonna be that.’
“Now they’re saying they want to do a fight in July and my knee isn’t gonna be ready in July. [St-Pierre] wasn’t gonna be ready until October, November. So to me, that plays perfectly but I know the UFC wants me to fight and they’re saying if I can’t fight that they’re gonna do an interim title fight.”
Though Bisping and St-Pierre were set to fight each other sometime this year, the former welterweight champion came out saying he wouldn’t be ready to fight until October, which prompted the threat from White to cancel the bout. Bisping then came out saying he was still dealing with a lingering knee issue and would be unable to defend the belt until later in the year as well. With the middleweight title now looking to be undefended for over a year at least, Bisping says that an interim title is likely in the works between No. 1 contender Yoel Romero and rising prospect Robert Whittaker.
“I’m assuming that they’re probably gonna do an interim title fight but I’ve got to speak to Dana. . . Probably Whittaker vs. Yoel, if I were the matchmakers, that’s what I’d do. Whittaker, we all know this, he’s on an absolute tear. I’ve got nothing against Robert Whittaker. Fine young man, great fighter, fights hard, got a lot of respect for him. Can’t say the same about Yoel. Yoel is certainly not on my Christmas card list. We all know my thoughts on him. He’s a scumbag, he’s a cheat, and that’s that. So if they do fight I, hope Whittaker beats the brains out of him.
“I couldn’t care less. If they want to do an interim title fight, so be it. I understand they’ve got to keep the division moving. It’s been a while and like I said, I can’t fight, certainly for the next few months anyway. So from the UFC’s side, I understand that.”
This is a bit of a change of pace from Bisping who previously stated that calls for interim title fights from Romero were “ridiculous” because he was champion and willing to defend his belt; but now that he’s injured and unable to defend, Bisping has softened his stance. Or it’s possible Bisping might not care because he is still holding out hope that his fight with St-Pierre isn’t dead yet.
“It probably isn’t happening but let’s not give up all hope,” he concluded on his podcast. “It’s not done. We’re gonna have the conversation, I’m gonna put my best foot forward that I should still fight GSP. That is my objective. When I speak to Dana, I’m gonna say ‘Dana, I feel like you owe me this fight.’ We had a deal. I fought everybody they put in front of me my whole career, I’ve been a soldier for the organization, so we’ll see what happens.”
http://www.mmafighting.com/2017/5/2...st-pierre-not-happening-expects-interim-title
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