FACT: GSP decided to return at WW before Bisping was even Champion... Dana decided on GSP VS Bisping

Cooliox said:
GSP's decision to return was made before Bisping was even champion.

He went on Ariel's show and on UFC Tonight, asking Dana for a chance, and listed 3 opponents - Woodley who was champion, Nate Diaz, or Demian Maia.

I think this was around August or September 2016. There were rumors that GSP was trying to reach a deal with the UFC to fight on UFC 206 in Canada.

This was after Dana White started taking shots at GSP publicly in about July 2016, saying that GSP doesn't want to fight and wants to stay retired.

GSP informed us that he has been negotiating with the UFC since the start of 2016 for a return, and wanted fair compensation for the loss of his ability to earn from Under Armour, since Reebok now had exclusive rights. GSP was told by the UFC that he wasn't worth the money to be re-introduced to the market.

This is why GSP came on that show to ask Dana White for a chance, saying hey if you don't think I'm worth it, give me a shot.

So, yea, GSP decided to come back in about Jan 2016, to the WW division. Bisping won the belt in June 2016. This was after GSP's decision to return.

What happened is that the UFC lost its 2 biggest stars- Conor beat Alvarez in November 2016 and started leveraging the UFC hard, saying he wasn't going to come back to fight in MMA, and started talking boxing...

Ronda got smashed by Amanda Nunes in December 2016, and went to hide under a rock, and retire.

So, Dana and the UFC had to reach a deal with GSP in about March 2017, when the UFC decided that GSP would fight Bisping in July.

GSP, not wanting to mislead fans, said that a July date was impossible since he had to re-enter the testing pool by USADA for 6 months prior to fighting. Dana then said that the Bisping fight was off, and said GSP would fight Woodley. After Woodley's lackluster performances against Wonderboy II and Maia, Dana threw Woodley under the bus and said the opportunity would now go back to Bisping since Woodley performed like he didn't want a money fight.

So, this is how we ended with GSP vs Bisping for the MW championship.

Not to mention, Bisping did his best to hold out for a chance at fighting GSP. Bisping wasn't shy about admitting to the fact that he would make about $500K fighting Jacare... while he would stand to make about $4Million against GSP.

So... yea. Haters gonna hate, but facts are not going to change.
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Haters gonna be like
tenor.gif
 
I always thought it was common knowledge he was coming back and the MW title scene mess was just an easy place to throw in one of the biggest draws..... but then sherdog wasn't super interested in facts.
 
Cooliox said:
GSP's decision to return was made before Bisping was even champion.

He went on Ariel's show and on UFC Tonight, asking Dana for a chance, and listed 3 opponents - Woodley who was champion, Nate Diaz, or Demian Maia.

I think this was around August or September 2016. There were rumors that GSP was trying to reach a deal with the UFC to fight on UFC 206 in Canada.

This was after Dana White started taking shots at GSP publicly in about July 2016, saying that GSP doesn't want to fight and wants to stay retired.

GSP informed us that he has been negotiating with the UFC since the start of 2016 for a return, and wanted fair compensation for the loss of his ability to earn from Under Armour, since Reebok now had exclusive rights. GSP was told by the UFC that he wasn't worth the money to be re-introduced to the market.

This is why GSP came on that show to ask Dana White for a chance, saying hey if you don't think I'm worth it, give me a shot.

So, yea, GSP decided to come back in about Jan 2016, to the WW division. Bisping won the belt in June 2016. This was after GSP's decision to return.

What happened is that the UFC lost its 2 biggest stars- Conor beat Alvarez in November 2016 and started leveraging the UFC hard, saying he wasn't going to come back to fight in MMA, and started talking boxing...

Ronda got smashed by Amanda Nunes in December 2016, and went to hide under a rock, and retire.

So, Dana and the UFC had to reach a deal with GSP in about March 2017, when the UFC decided that GSP would fight Bisping in July.

GSP, not wanting to mislead fans, said that a July date was impossible since he had to re-enter the testing pool by USADA for 6 months prior to fighting. Dana then said that the Bisping fight was off, and said GSP would fight Woodley. After Woodley's lackluster performances against Wonderboy II and Maia, Dana threw Woodley under the bus and said the opportunity would now go back to Bisping since Woodley performed like he didn't want a money fight.

So, this is how we ended with GSP vs Bisping for the MW championship.

Not to mention, Bisping did his best to hold out for a chance at fighting GSP. Bisping wasn't shy about admitting to the fact that he would make about $500K fighting Jacare... while he would stand to make about $4Million against GSP.

So... yea. Haters gonna hate, but facts are not going to change.
Click to expand...



<Dany07><TrumpWrong1>
 
Cooliox said:
GSP's decision to return was made before Bisping was even champion.

He went on Ariel's show and on UFC Tonight, asking Dana for a chance, and listed 3 opponents - Woodley who was champion, Nate Diaz, or Demian Maia.

I think this was around August or September 2016. There were rumors that GSP was trying to reach a deal with the UFC to fight on UFC 206 in Canada.

This was after Dana White started taking shots at GSP publicly in about July 2016, saying that GSP doesn't want to fight and wants to stay retired.

GSP informed us that he has been negotiating with the UFC since the start of 2016 for a return, and wanted fair compensation for the loss of his ability to earn from Under Armour, since Reebok now had exclusive rights. GSP was told by the UFC that he wasn't worth the money to be re-introduced to the market.

This is why GSP came on that show to ask Dana White for a chance, saying hey if you don't think I'm worth it, give me a shot.

So, yea, GSP decided to come back in about Jan 2016, to the WW division. Bisping won the belt in June 2016. This was after GSP's decision to return.

What happened is that the UFC lost its 2 biggest stars- Conor beat Alvarez in November 2016 and started leveraging the UFC hard, saying he wasn't going to come back to fight in MMA, and started talking boxing...

Ronda got smashed by Amanda Nunes in December 2016, and went to hide under a rock, and retire.

So, Dana and the UFC had to reach a deal with GSP in about March 2017, when the UFC decided that GSP would fight Bisping in July.

GSP, not wanting to mislead fans, said that a July date was impossible since he had to re-enter the testing pool by USADA for 6 months prior to fighting. Dana then said that the Bisping fight was off, and said GSP would fight Woodley. After Woodley's lackluster performances against Wonderboy II and Maia, Dana threw Woodley under the bus and said the opportunity would now go back to Bisping since Woodley performed like he didn't want a money fight.

So, this is how we ended with GSP vs Bisping for the MW championship.

Not to mention, Bisping did his best to hold out for a chance at fighting GSP. Bisping wasn't shy about admitting to the fact that he would make about $500K fighting Jacare... while he would stand to make about $4Million against GSP.

So... yea. Haters gonna hate, but facts are not going to change.
Click to expand...

John Danaher also said that his camp started negotiations for a MW title shot when Rockhold was the champ (Joe Rogan podcast).
 
Kono dio da! said:
Out of interest, you think gsp takes Rockhold? Rockhold is huge but gsp is crafty. Can Rockhold take and hold him down? I could never stop thinking about this when gsp was champ.
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I remember Nick Diaz making fun of Rockhold is technic !
So, GSP would have won a close decision IMO.
 
Kono dio da! said:
Out of interest, you think gsp takes Rockhold? Rockhold is huge but gsp is crafty. Can Rockhold take and hold him down? I could never stop thinking about this when gsp was champ.
Click to expand...
Not sure... Rockhold was a beast for a moment... a much bigger and versatile Hendricks. And what is the deal with once losing the 185 belt your career goes to s***... Silva , Weidman , Rockhold... Makes me hope the best for Whitaker.
 
I've generally supported GSP, but this thread misses the point. GSP avoided fighting Anderson for years. Everyone wanted that fight except GSP; the fans salivated over it, Anderson repeatedly campaigned for it, and Dana constantly pushed for it. But GSP wanted no part of it. I don't say this as a judgement, as I don't think fighters are obligated to move up and fight larger opponents; in fact, most champions actively avoid it.

So even if we stipulate to the idea that GSP didn't come back to the UFC specifically to fight Bisping, the fact remains that he blatantly avoided Anderson for years despite immense momentum for the fight (it was the most desired fight in the history of the sport), but jumped at the chance when offered a shot at the weakest MW champion in more than a decade.

And after he beat Bisping, who clearly wasn't a top 5 MW at the time, he immediately left the division rather than fight an actual top MW. And before we bring up his health issues, it's important to remember that Dana took the extraordinary measure of adding a clause in GSP's contract mandating that he defend the title because he knew that GSP would try to avoid fighting the top MWs. Aside from the most ardent GSP fans, everyone knew he would never fight Yoel, Whittaker, or Jacare.

So yes, he cherry-picked an easy MW fight. It doesn't take away from GSP's greatness, but facts are facts.
 
gsp was the best to ever do it, and still is.
youd have to be crazy not to think gsp could come back right now and take the 70 belt back
 
Nice thread. I must admit I had kind of forgot how the negotiations started.
I must admit I do throw around the cherry-pick argument once in a while, but I usually don't claim GSP was a pure opportunist or a coward, just that his MW win perhaps shouldn't be rated that highly because Bisping wasn't the greatest opponent.

But I feel like most GSP-haters will not succumb to this argument.
They'll either stick to their guns and saying the only real reason the negotiations moved forward wasn't money, but GSP finally taking the jump as he found an opportunity for an easy win.

Or they will claim the cherry-picking accusation was never important to begin with, and desperately claim the real reason to hate GSP is one of the classics (didn't move up to fight Silva, tapped to strikes, should've lost to Hendricks, HGH gut, low finish rate)

The argument "GSP was scared of Woodley" has already become way less frequently used ever since Woodley's train lost steam. It was more common a few years ago.
 
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