It’s time to move on from Michael Bisping vs. Georges St-Pierre.
That’s according to No. 1-ranked middleweight Yoel Romero’s manager, Malki Kawa, who spoke on the matter during an appearance on The Luke Thomas Show yesterday (Thurs. May 11, 2017).
Earlier this year it was announced that St-Pierre had inked a fresh multi-fight deal with the UFC and would be challenging Michael Bisping for the middleweight crown. This upset the likes of top contenders such as Romero, Luke Rockhold, and Anderson Silva. This week, however, St-Pierre noted that he wouldn’t be ready to return until October, thus forcing UFC President Dana White to call the bout off and award the title shot to Romero.
Kawa said he expected this to happen as he knows White has a pet peeve for fighters who don’t fight (quotes via MMA Fighting):
“I actually was expecting it. If you know Dana White, one thing he can’t stand is when fighters don’t fight, especially when the champions don’t fight. . . If you know Dana right and you watch him, he’s probably just tired of the whole hoopla with Georges. . .
“The whole division is up in arms. Everybody comes out every day screaming and yelling except for Yoel. It’s unreal how much this one fight has caused so much of a headache. “
In response to White’s comments, St-Pierre said that he believes they’re nothing more than a bargaining tool in attempt to get him back into the Octagon sooner than he’d like. Kawa believes that is a possibility, but isn’t buying that’s actually what’s happening here:
“It could be. It’s a possibility but I doubt it. How do you come out publicly and say, ‘Yoel Romero is the guy that Bisping’s gonna fight’ one time, then you have him step aside and then do the same thing a second time? I just don’t see how. . .
“From what I’ve got from people at the UFC, they’re definitely gonna target the fight between Bisping and Yoel Romero. We’ve already accepted. We told them we’re in and we’re ready to rock and roll so we’re waiting on Bisping to accept.”
Kawa believes that what happens next lies in the hands of Bisping, who still could refuse to fight Romero and opt to instead wait for “Rush”. If that is the case, Kawa is calling for the belt to be stripped from the Englishman:
“I think the kicker in all of this is Bisping. It depends on Bisping because if Bisping refuses to fight, then what’s the next step? That’s gonna be the next thing.
“[If Bisping does refuse] I’m calling for them to strip the belt at this point. It’s time to strip the belt. . . It’s unfortunate. It’s a bad situation for everyone to be in but at the end of the day, it’s time for us to move on with this division.”
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