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Georges St-Pierre Finally Unveils Real Reason He Can’t Fight Until October

One of the bigger – and perhaps the largest – messes in a down first five months of 2017 for the UFC was the failed attempt at booking longtime welterweight boss Georges St-Pierre’s awaited comeback fight against current middleweight champion Michael Bisping. The bout was announced in March, with the promotion putting on a hastily […]

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The bout was announced in March, with the promotion putting on a hastily thrown-together press conference at UFC 209 despite the fact that St-Pierre repeatedly insisted he wouldn’t be able to make it to the cage until October at the earliest (even if Dana White wanted him to fight in July) and Bisping having undergone knee surgery not long before the announcement.

That justifiably lead to mass outcry from the majority of the currently jam-packed middleweight landscape, with everyone from Luke Rockhold to Anderson Silva calling the fight a terrible decision that only served to further delay the champion defending against a truly deserving title contender. The wheels predictably fell off the bout when the superstar released a video reiterating his stance that he could only fight after October. White then announced that they would no longer wait for “Rush” to return and Bisping would fight consensus contender Yoel Romero for the belt.

But with “The Count” allegedly still nursing a knee injury, the promotion was left with no other choice to book Romero vs. surging young contender Robert Whittaker for the interim belt at UFC 213, somewhat solving the puzzling title picture that will only come together when Bisping is able to defend the belt. He’s been holding out for the huge payday St-Pierre will no doubt bring, and indeed the fight may still happen.

However, as we wait to see what happens in the head-scratching mess that has followed the fight’s original unveiling, St-Pierre came out with some revealing information as to just why he could not fight this summer. Speaking up in an interview with Justin Kingsley at today’s C2 Montreal conference (via MMA Fighting), the MMA star detailed an eye injury that will keep him from sparring until the fall:

“Trust me, I’m not the kind of guy who thinks, ‘Hey, I’m going to make everybody wait for me. I don’t want to fight during the summer, I want to take my time …That’s not the reason. If it were up to me, I would come back. The reason is I had a problem with my eye. I had an injury. My vision has not been back yet. It will be back. It’s something very minor. The doctor insisted for me that I don’t spar until September.”

And while the UFC still lobbied him to fight in July, St-Pierre insisted they knew the timetable for his comeback but staged the press conference anyway:

“The UFC was aware of it. They knew I couldn’t fight during the summer, but they still insisted on doing that press conference with Michael Bisping. And when it happened, we were not very excited about the idea, but we wanted that fight, so we decided to do it, but then it turned into a negative thing because it took so long.

“But UFC knew. Everyone knew. The people concerned knew that that was the case, but they still tried to put pressure on me to fight in July. That’s the reason why I’m coming out public today about the reason why I’m not fighting this summer.”

So many fans and media members may be growing impatient about the superstar’s highly anticipated and long-awaited return but the longtime champion reaffirmed his belief that he has to be in the best shape possible if and when he faces the middleweight champion, because he’s putting his nearly spotless legacy on the line by even setting foot back in the octagon:

“I always said that if I was coming back to fight, it needed to be a fight that excites me. I wanted to fight Michael Bisping because I wanted to fight someone that could elevate me. Michael Bisping is the champion now, and I think that he could elevate me as much as I could elevate him. I’m taking a huge risk coming back. I’m putting my legacy on the line.”

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Georges St-Pierre Thinks Dana White Is Just Being Emotional

Late last night the mixed martial arts world was shook by the news that UFC President Dana White was ready to call off the rumored Michael Bisping vs. Georges St-Pierre middleweight title fight, a bout that had drawn the collective (and increasing) disdain of many fans and fighters alike since it was announced with a

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Many of the top combatants in the stacked middleweight division, including top contender Yoel Romero and former champions Anderson Silva and Luke Rockhold, correctly called it a fight that did nothing but clog up an already crowded title queue, especially considering the fact St-Pierre recently confirmed he would only be ready to fight after October.

So White apparently called the bout off last night, and St-Pierre provided his thoughts on the matter to MMA Fighting, noting that he still wants to fight “The Count” and adding that White may just be speaking from emotion:

“I want to fight Bisping and I think Bisping wants to fight me. I just learned the news. I don’t know what to say. It might be an emotional response by Dana or maybe it’s to put pressure on me.”

Photo by Joe Camporeale for USA TODAY Sports

The next 185-pound title shot will reportedly now go to Romero, but it’s unclear if St-Pierre, who’s said he’s only looking for the biggest of fights in his return from a nearly four-year absence, would face Romero for the title if he defeats Bisping as the early odds would have us believe.

Most hardcore fight fans acknowledge the brutalizing “Soldier of God” is far and away the most deserving middleweight contender, but St-Pierre focused on the opinion that those fighters left out in the dark on a big fight are simply an unfortunate result of the individual-focused fight game:

“In this sport, among fighters, when one fighter gets an opportunity, it always leaves more fighters unhappy than happy.

“It’s the nature of a one-man sport. I’ve been there.”

That may be true, but it’s also hard to justify holding up arguably one of the most talented divisions in the sport to await the potential return of a legendary former welterweight champion who has never even fought at 185. It also opens up the door for the promotion to finally book the long-rumored Silva vs. St-Pierre fight sometime down the road, a guaranteed pay-per-view (PPV_ hit even if would happen five years too late.

That the UFC can get the fans off their backs by giving Romero the fight he’s obviously earned, and also gain a super fight that would do much better numbers that Bisping vs. St-Pierre in the first place. It kills two birds with one stone, as they say, yet St-Pierre still seems to want his showdown with “The Count,” perhaps because he thinks he’s an easily beatable champion.

Perhaps he should have forced the issue of his return more forcefully after hinting at it for more than three-and-a-half years.

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Roy Nelson Absolutely Destroys Anderson Silva’s Title Shot Haters

Not surprisingly, there are a ton of skeptics about longtime former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva’s ultimatum that he needs an interim title fight against Yoel Romero at June 3’s UFC 212 or he’ll retire. True, the legendary “Spider” may only be 1-4(1 NC) in his last six octagon bouts, but while that’s hardly the

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Not surprisingly, there are a ton of skeptics about longtime former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva’s ultimatum that he needs an interim title fight against Yoel Romero at June 3’s UFC 212 or he’ll retire.

True, the legendary “Spider” may only be 1-4(1 NC) in his last six octagon bouts, but while that’s hardly the resume of a title contender, we’ve seen that pure meritocracy is rarely the way UFC title shots are handed out anyhow. The entire scenario could have been avoided altogether if A.) current champ Michael Bisping would simply fight the No. 1-ranked Romero like most fans think he should and B.) Silva’s original opponent Kelvin Gastelum hadn’t been pulled from the card for failing a USADA drug test for marijuana metabolites.

Bisping is fighting former welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre (or so we’ve been told) at a yet-to-be-determined date sometime later this year, a bout that “The Spider” feels is simply disrespectful to all middleweights in the stacked UFC 185-pound landscape. While there are certainly more deserving contenders on paper as Silva isn’t exactly on fire, he did get a win, albeit controversially, over Derek Brunson in his last appearance at UFC 208.

All the fans who have cried out that him earning a title shot would be a similar scenario, however, were dealt a sobering dose of facts by UFC heavyweight Roy Nelson, who pointed out a long list of UFC fighters who actually earned a title shot coming off a loss:

Ouch. Framed in that sense, Silva’s call for an interim title shot doesn’t seem all that outlandish, especially when you consider that the onetime-invincible Silva may still be the UFC’s biggest star with Conor McGregor on the sidelines trying to box Floyd Mayweather and Ronda Rousey almost assuredly retired.

And win or lose, he’s a fighting champion who actually called out man who absolutely no one seems to want to fight right now in “The Soldier of God” just 11 months after he fought light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier on an unprecedented three days’ notice at last year’s UFC 200.

Love him or hate him, Silva is a gamer, and the UFC simply needs him during arguably the worst start to a year they’ve ever seen with both pay-per-view and TV ratings tanking in a major way under new ownership.

There’s no real reason not to make this fight, and as Nelson pointed out, a bunch of well-known UFC combatants have “earned” a title shot for much less.

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Roy Nelson Absolutely Destroys Anderson Silva’s Title Shot Haters

The post Roy Nelson Absolutely Destroys Anderson Silva’s Title Shot Haters appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

There’s no real reason not to make this fight, and as Nelson pointed out, a bunch of well-known UFC combatants have “earned” a title shot for much less.

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Michael Bisping Cries Hypocrisy In UFC: Conor McGregor Is ‘Jesus Reincarnated’

Middleweight champion Michael Bisping is fighting Georges St-Pierre – or at least he supposedly is, pending a hard-to-find date for the bout – and he doesn’t care what the many critics of his pending payday think. Most of those critics believe Bisping should forego the bout with a returning St-Pierre, the former welterweight champion who

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Most of those critics believe Bisping should forego the bout with a returning St-Pierre, the former welterweight champion who has never fought at 185 pounds, for a title defense with clear-cut number one contender Yoel Romero, an understandable stance given the fact “The Count” made his first and only title defense against retiring legend and then No. 14-ranked Dan Henderson last October.

But according to the outspoken Brit, he’s going to receive backlash no matter what he does, and he finds a bit of hypocrisy in that fact. The champ spoke up on the latest episode of the “Believe You Me” podcast (via FOX Sports) to offer the opinion that Conor McGregor, who’s currently out of the UFC teasing a potential boxing match with Floyd Mayweather, can do exactly what he’s doing and worse, and he’s lauded as the greatest fighter in MMA for it:

“Whatever I do I get [expletive] off everybody. Conor McGregor can do no wrong. He is Jesus reincarnated. He can walk on water. He can do whatever the [expletive] he wants. He can leave the sport of UFC and go chase a boxing match and that’s still the best thing ever, holding up two divisions whilst he’s at it.

“Me, Jesus Christ, all I try to do is get a big payday and I’m scum of the Earth. I am the devil.”

“The Count” didn’t stop there either, noting that whomever he did choose to defend the middleweight title against, all of the other top contenders in the currently stacked 185-pound fray will be disappointed, leaving him in a no-win situation. Bisping insists he’s fighting St-Pierre and they simply have to deal with it, so he suggested all of the chirpy top-ranked middleweights looking to get a fight with him do just what he did throughout his lengthy grind to a title shot – quit complaining and win fights:

“Here’s the thing, the top seven [fighters] are calling me out, whichever one of them, because they’re all tough. They’re all tough guys, let’s be honest. They’re all very, very good. Whichever one of them I pick, the other six are all going to [expletive] and whine and complain. So you can’t win,” Bisping said. “I’m fighting Georges St-Pierre, [expletive] deal with it. If you want to fight in the mean time, go ahead.

“Luke Rockhold’s still talking [expletive], he hasn’t put a glove on since I knocked him out in the first round. Yoel hasn’t fought in a long time. If you’re so good, continue to fight. When I didn’t have a title shot, when I wasn’t the champion and didn’t get a title shot, I didn’t whine and [expletive] and complain. I just got on with it and I kept fighting. I hoped and I always had that in my heart, I would keep fighting and keep doing what I can do and here I am. I got there in the end. So guys, stop whining, stop [expletive], just get on with it.”

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Four Ways Michael Bisping Ducked Yoel Romero

Middleweight champion Michael Bisping continues to draw the collective ire of the MMA community by fighting former welterweight Georges St-Pierre and eschewing consensus top contender Yoel Romero. It probably shouldn’t be that much of a surprise that Bisping is becoming a highly controversial champion after shocking the world against Luke Rockhold at UFC 199, then

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Middleweight champion Michael Bisping continues to draw the collective ire of the MMA community by fighting former welterweight Georges St-Pierre and eschewing consensus top contender Yoel Romero.

It probably shouldn’t be that much of a surprise that Bisping is becoming a highly controversial champion after shocking the world against Luke Rockhold at UFC 199, then defending the title versus No. 14-ranked Dan Henderson, who was 46 years old and in his last professional bout, and now St-Pierre. His prior UFC run showed obvious signs that may be the case if he were to win the belt.

But regardless of the brash Brit’s outspoken style of fight promotion, all of this is just making it start to look like Bisping is ducking Romero, especially after he said he would immediately fight the Cuban wrestling powerhouse after his bout with St-Pierre. Let’s take a look at five ways “The Count” has already ducked Yoel Romero.

Photo by Joe Camporeale – USA TODAY Sports

4.) Fighting St-Pierre:

Let’s get the obvious one out of the way first and foremost: Bisping’s upcoming bout with the legendary former welterweight champion, while arguably the biggest spectacle fight the UFC has on the table right now, just doesn’t make sense for the UFC’s 185-pound title picture as a whole, and it’s become the center of a hotbed of controversy surrounding the always-popular division.

While it’s hard to blame the 37-year-old Bisping for taking a much-deserved huge money fight as one of the last few remaining bouts of his lengthy UFC tenure, it’s also hard not to blame him for taking on what many feel is an easier challenge against a much smaller man with less knockout power coming off of what will be a nearly four-year layoff from the octagon.

Bisping has made it clear he doesn’t care what the haters say, but the whole rivalry with GSP is making it look like he wants a big payday – and also no part of Romero.

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