https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYPUe-ovjT4
UFC 214 was a pretty great card from start to finish, with the glaring exception of the Tyron Woodley vs. Demian Maia welterweight title fight. That fight was a resounding dud, with fans at the Honda Center in Anaheim California raining down boos for a good portion of the five round fight and waving their cell phone flashlights around in some strange new form of bored protest.
An arena in protest! #UFC214 pic.twitter.com/Un4mKW1W5r
— Marc Raimondi (@marcraimondi) July 30, 2017
A lot of the criticism surrounding the fight is getting heaped on champ Tyron Woodley, who definitely proved he was the better wrestler by stuffing over 20 of Maia’s takedowns. Unfortunately, he didn’t follow that up with any kind of offense. The fight broke the record for least strikes in a title fight, and not by a little… by a lot.
“Listen, when you break a record for the least punches ever thrown in a five round title fight, and you beat it by, it was like 130 and these guys did 60, that about sums it up,” a visibly peeved Dana White said at the post fight press conference. And because it was such a disappointing fight, he rescinded his declaration from before the event that the winner of Woodley / Maia would get to fight Georges St-Pierre.
I asked Dana White if Woodley's performance impacts a potential GSP fight. "Absolutely." So, what does that mean? "Good things for Bisping."
— Brett Okamoto (@bokamotoESPN) July 30, 2017
Asked if that meant the previously booked but then subsequently canceled GSP vs Michael Bisping fight was back on, White nodded.
“Yup,” he said simply. “There you go. Because I know Michael Bisping will fight. Michael Bisping will show up and he will fight, so yeah, I’m going to give it to him.”
Confirmed with sources that Bisping vs GSP has been agreed to for MSG on 11/4. Should be signed in the coming days.
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) July 30, 2017
White wasn’t willing to divulge a date but the fight is already looking like it will headline UFC 217 in November at Madison Square Garden. Bisping and St-Pierre have been trying to force the UFC to let them fight since Dana called the match off a few months ago, so we imagine there’ll be few problems setting the match up now that White is no longer resisting the inevitable. One thing is for sure, though: Tyron Woodley provided an easy excuse to give them what they wanted with that lackluster performance at UFC 214.
