Dana White believes Georges St-Pierre considered Michael Bisping to be a “tune-up” opponent, and is now left with far worse matchups at both welterweight and middleweight.
After a four-year layoff, Georges St-Pierre put on an impressive performance to defeat Michael Bisping at UFC 217 and become the new UFC middleweight champion. But as of the moment, he has been non-committal about what to do next as far as defending the title goes.
Dana White, on one hand, says St-Pierre may have looked at Bisping as a tune-up opponent. The UFC president also believes that GSP may have actually painted himself into a corner by becoming the new 185-pound champion.
“You looked at Bisping like he was a tune-up,” White said during a media luncheon on Tuesday. “You got your tune-up, there’s nothing but f—king animals at 185 and 170. Luke Rockhold is massive, he’s massive when he cuts weight. There’s no good options.”
“To sit there and try to handpick people, or where you want to go and everything else, you can’t in this f–king sport,” White continued. “They’re all nasty.”
“You’re a fighter, get in there and see who you can f–king beat. You wanted to f–king come back, welcome back.”
One of the next options that are being talked about for St-Pierre is a unification title fight against interim champion Robert Whittaker at UFC 221 in Perth, Australia in February. White, however, says it is not an option he sees for St-Pierre at the moment, but ultimately hopes that the middleweight title would be defended.
“I don’t even know if Perth is what I want for him yet, so we’re gonna talk today and figure it out.”
“I don’t wanna hear that,” White said about the idea of St-Pierre dropping back down to welterweight. “That’s not what I wanna hear. I wanna hear he’s gonna defend the 185-pound title. That’s the agreement we made. That’s the deal we made when we made the deal.”