GSP and Dana White continue to clash in the media, with White claiming he doesn’t want none of St-Pierre’s big money fight crap.
As big as Conor McGregor vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229 on October 6th is gonna be, an ensuing fight between the winner and Georges St-Pierre could be bigger. But that’s not stopping UFC president Dana White from shutting it down before it happens, because he’s sick of GSP dropping belts on him.
“I’m not interested in that fight,” White told BBC News recently (via MMANYTT). “He knows that and I’ve told him many times.”
”He was the 170-pound champion, he moved up to 185 pounds to take on Michael Bisping and put in his agreement that he would absolutely defend the title at 185 and then just dumped the title. I’m not interested.”
”Georges St-Pierre is looking for one off fights where he can make a lot of money,” White concluded. “Which, it’s smart … that’s what he should do. But we’re not interested in that. I’m interested in Georges St-Pierre coming back at 170. Not at 155 pounds.”
And because it wouldn’t be a Dana White comment on St-Pierre without it, he included his patented “I don’t know if he’ll ever fight again” line.
That’s another thing Georges St-Pierre has heard over and over again. He addressed the constant attempt from Dana White to frame him as retired on Joe Rogan’s podcast back in May.
”He said that before, I didn’t want to fight, before I fought Bisping,” Georges said, agreeing with Rogan that it was all an attempt to ‘f**k with his head.’
”Yes obviously, so my ego will be ‘I’ll show you I can fight, bring me this guy!’” he said with a laugh. “That’s what it is, man, it’s a freaking game. We say it’s not a game, it’s really all a game … And he’s good at messing up with my head too because some time my ego is like ‘Uuurgh!’”
“I want to say ‘Oh you say my schedule is too busy, then I’ll take that fight!’ But I shouldn’t do that because it’s a stupid move. If I start acting like this, [I go down]. And a lot of guys don’t have that self-control and self-discipline in them. It’s all a game.”
That’s probably what we’re witnessing as the UFC works towards filling up the final fight cards of the year. St-Pierre has said he’d be recovered enough from a bout of colitis to fight in the fall, but from what we’re seeing lately it doesn’t really look like he’ll end up on UFC 230 in New York City or UFC 231 in Toronto. The UFC always seems to struggle with getting GSP back in the cage, so maybe it’s time to dump ‘the game’ and try something new.