Earlier this week during an appearance on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani, former UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre dropped a bit of news regarding his upcoming title shot against middleweight champion Michael Bisping. According to “GSP,” if he ends up winning the title then he is contractually obligated to defend the 185 pound belt instead of going in search of other big money fights.
No doubt, it is a big revelation due to the fact that members of St-Pierre’s own team had mentioned possible fights with Nick Diaz and Conor McGregor. If he would have to live up to his obligation then he would have to interim middleweight champion Robert Whittaker next.
During Tuesday’s episode of his Believe You Me podcast (transcript courtesy of MMA Fighting), Bisping reacted to St-Pierre’s revelation.
“All that stops Georges from doing – Georges is still in the position of power, much as I don’t like to admit that. Listen, I’m fighting GSP and I have a fan base and people like to watch me fight or people like to see me get knocked out. Win or lose, people do tune in. But GSP is a big name and he brings the huge Canadian market with him and that’s what the UFC are after. They want all those Canadians to start buying the Pay-Per-Views again. From what I’m hearing, Pay-Per-View sales in Canada haven’t been doing too well lately so they want GSP to come back and they want all those people, all those lumberjacks to start buying the Pay-Per-Views again.
“If, God forbid, he beats me, he has it in the contract that he has to fight Robert Whittaker. But he can retire. He can retire if he wants. They cannot force you to fight. So let’s say he was to say, ‘I retire’ and then say, ‘Hey, listen, I’ll come out of retirement to fight at 170 [pounds]. UFC, do you want to sell all those Pay-Per-Views again, yes or no? It’s up to you.’ So really . . . one would assume that he can really do what he wants. They can’t force him to fight.”
Keep in mind that although the UFC cannot legally force St-Pierre to fight. Instead, they do have the right to strip him of his title if he refuses to fight the contender they deem next in line for him to face. This situation just played out with Germaine de Randamie. Bisping did admit that GSP does bring more attention and more money than he does. Thus, he understands that UFC would likely be willing to do even more for St-Pierre than they did for him.
“[St-Pierre]’s in the position of power, really. Of course Dana’s the promoter, the UFC are the promoters but we’re the fighters and GSP has that Canadian market that buys Pay-Per-Views. Unfortunately for me, I’ve got a fantastic following in the U.K. – I have a great following and God bless you all – but the way it’s structured in the U.K., we get the UFC for free. There’s no Pay-Per-View so there’s limited – it’s a big attraction to the UFC to have the U.K. market but to have the Canadian market that has a history of buying Pay-Per-Views, you pay for the UFC in Canada so that’s more beneficial to the UFC.”
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