It’s never been a sure thing that Georges St-Pierre would continue fighting at middleweight following his 185 pound title fight with Michael Bisping. Even with a clause written into his contract from the UFC that demanded he defend against interim champ Robert Whittaker, many expected him to win the belt and then drop it to return to the 170 pound weight class he spent his entire fighting career in.
Now it sounds like we’re one step closer to that happening. In an interview with TSN, St-Pierre used his strongest language yet to prepare us for the seemingly inevitable vacating of his title.
“We’ll talk about it, but I’m not sure if I compete I will go back at 185,” he said. “I don’t think so.”
St-Pierre is currently suffering from colitis, which is an inflammation of the colon which may or may not be related to his disastrous attempts to put on mass for his middleweight debut at UFC 217. According to his coaches, St-Pierre was throwing up on a daily basis and almost ended up having to pull out of the fight.
“Of course, in terms of weight, if I want to go back to compete at 185, obviously eating, like I did what I did, I learned from my mistakes,” Georges continued. “I don’t think it’s a good thing to do, force myself to eat to gain muscle mass. I’ve always been against performance-enhancing drugs, and I did it the natural way. There is no easy way. I did it the hard way and it was to gain weight and to maintain my muscles mass and it was very hard and it was not healthy.”
“I think the body has a natural weight it can perform at its best athletic ability and for me, the weight that I am now is my perfect weight.”
There’s a couple of big questions now, like what will be next for GSP, and whether the UFC is going to hold a grudge over him bailing on the division he’s currently champion of. Before St-Pierre’s colitis diagnosis, UFC president Dana White had some pretty strong words regarding the Canadian dropping the belt, saying he’d be “super pissed” if St-Pierre didn’t follow through on “what we agreed to.”
Word is the UFC is already planning to move ahead with the middleweight division, pitting interim champ Robert Whittaker against Luke Rockhold in Perth, Australia for UFC 221 in February. Unless something big changes, we expect Whittaker’s interim belt will become the legit belt by then. Whether the UFC and Georges St-Pierre will continue to see eye to eye enough to keep the GOAT contender active is another matter entirely.
