Bisping could have fought Romero when GSP hurt his eye. Just as GSP pulled out and the Romero fight was getting booked, Bisping needed knee surgery...and then he was vocal about fighting GSP on his return as their medical clearances lined up and they'd already done the world tour. By that point he interim fight with Romero/Whitakker was booked already.
The only difference GSP made, was that Bisping would have fought Rockhold instead of GSP at 216 (if he would have even accepted the fight) because Whitakker was off with surgery. Rockhold would have won (by most people's assessment), and we'd be looking at Whitakker/Rockhold for the same event anyway.
If you think about it, GSP literally didn't change anything as him or Rockhold would have won that night. At worst, if Rockhold lost, we'd be looking at GSP/Bisping on the NYE card instead as Whitakker won't be ready until late January. But lets be honest, Rockhold would not make the same mistake twice and would have walked through Bisping like he did in their first fight.
If that happened, Rockhold might have needed more time, and the unification title would have been potentially pushed back further. By GSP knocking Bisping out of the champ seat and then immediately relinquishing the belt, he literally freed the division up and let the true champ in Whitakker take the throne and fight the next legit contender in line.
GSP had nothing to do with Bisping holding up the belt. He pulled out of the Romero fight when GSP was unavailable due to needing a knee surgery. The only way GSP would have stalled things was by holding up the belt while he works out his colitis issue...he didn't, he handed the belt to the interim champ and life goes on its merry way.
