Georges St-Pierre has finally signed the bout agreement for his long-rumored UFC return against Michael Bisping.
The longtime former welterweight champion, who has been out of action since his highly controversial split decision over Johny Hendricks at November 2013’s UFC 167, has been in talks to fight Michael Bisping for the 185-pound title since early 2017, with the two even meeting in a press conference this March.
But when St-Pierre continued to insist he couldn’t fight until sometime after October, UFC President Dana White called a hasty halt to the bout, saying the ‘ship had sailed’ and that Bisping would fight the winner of UFC 213’s Robert Whittaker vs. Yoel Romero interim title fight while giving St-Pierre a shot at the winner of UFC 214’s welterweight title bout between Tyron Woodley and Demain Maia. When that fight failed to deliver, however, that ship sailed back into port, with Bisping ‘announcing’ it for November 4’s UFC 214 from Madison Square Garden on last week’s UFC Tonight.
It wasn’t yet official, but apparently, it is now. St- Pierre posted this picture of him signing his bout agreement on Facebook page today:
St-Pierre’s return, while wholly an awaited one since he vacated the title following his win over Hendricks, has become a controversial topic in the sport of MMA, as a large majority of the fanbase have criticized Bisping for not taking on the top contenders at 185 pounds since winning the belt from Luke Rockhold in June 2016.
It may be true that he only holds one title defense over a then-No. 14-ranked and now retired Dan Henderson, but the middleweight arena is now lacking a clear contender thanks to Whittaker, who knocked out Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza and beat Romero while significantly injuring his knee to clear out of the top of the division for the time being.
That leaves “The Count” with no other contender than the fight that he’s wanted all along. But is it the one you want as a fan?
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