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Tyron Woodley Says He’d Relinquish WW Title To Fight GSP

UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley has witnessed how fluid weight classes have become in the promotion; with former 170-pound kingpin Georges St-Pierre now middleweight champ, Conor McGregor going from featherweight to welterweight and eventually lightweight, it’s fair to say that weight classes are perhaps not as important as they were in the past. Woodley was […]

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Woodley was initially aiming for a fight with GSP prior to his announcement of moving to 185 pounds, so now the welterweight champion will have to consider moving up a division as well in order to secure that fight.

Woodley was also rumored to have had a fight agreement with Nate Diaz but said that Diaz failed to sign the contract. Without a fight in the foreseeable future, the welterweight champion discussed his desire for a fight with GSP and what he would have to do in order to do so:

“If I went up to 185 – before Georges started having whatever the condition he had, I considered making a move up to 185 and fighting at that weight class. (I’d give) up my belt at welterweight (if close friend and retired ONE FC champ Ben Askren were to sign with the UFC), and fight (GSP) for the middleweight title and stay at middleweight.”

“I’m not going up to middleweight because I think that would boost me on the pound-for-pound. I want to fight Georges, and he’s not fighting in my weight. So I’ll come up and see you there. And I do think there are some guys I can compete with in the middleweight division. I’m going to be so much faster. I don’t think I’m giving up that much power in the punching.

“Guys like Chris Weidman, Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza, Luke Rockhold – (those) brothers have got some size on me. I have to be real creative. But in reality I think I’m a competitor and I will find a way to do what I need to do.”

Woodley acknowledged the possibility of his friend Ben Askren making the jump to the UFC following his retirement fight against Shinya Aoki. Askren said the only thing that could convince him to come out of retirement would be a shot at the UFC welterweight title.

These factors combined mean Woodley could be a middleweight in the near-future. With so many possibilities at both welterweight and middleweight, the champ says he wants to keep his options open:

“I’m open to any fight – anything that makes sense for me. But right now, I’m not putting myself on a box and saying, ‘These are my next guys.’ Who else is doing that? What other division beside my division is forced to actually compete against the No. 1 contender?

“That’s forced to say you have to fight this guy? Nobody else is in that position. With that said, I’m just keeping my options open.”

How would Woodley perform at 185 pounds? Could the welterweight champion hang with the middleweight division’ elite?

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Luke Rockhold Sounds Off On Current State Of The UFC

Former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold hasn’t done anything close to mincing words about his opinion of the current state of the UFC under new owners Endeavor (formerly WME-IMG). He’s been especially critical of the company’s handling of the title picture in his 185-pound division. After he was shockingly upset by Michael Bisping at UFC […]

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Former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold hasn’t done anything close to mincing words about his opinion of the current state of the UFC under new owners Endeavor (formerly WME-IMG).

He’s been especially critical of the company’s handling of the title picture in his 185-pound division. After he was shockingly upset by Michael Bisping at UFC 199 in June 2016, the promotion let “The Count” make his only title defense against retiring then No. 14-ranked Dan Henderson before taking more than a year off waiting to fight former welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre, who had never fought at 185 pounds in his lengthy career.

‘GSP’ won the title from Bisping with a strong performance at November 4’s UFC 217, but then seemed to waffle on his previous promise that he would unify the titles with interim champion Robert Whittaker in his subsequent bout. Now he’s on the sidelines dealing with colitis and could be out for an undetermined amount of time.

Rockhold has long been a vocal opponent of St-Pierre’s foray into his division, and now he’s ramping up his criticism. Speaking to Ariel Helwani on today’s episode of The MMA Hour, Rockhold said he believes it time for St-Pierre to admit he doesn’t want to fight at 185 pounds in order to let the stagnating weight class move on:

“The fact is, come out and say that you don’t want to fight here in the division and relinquish the title and move on. Stop just, I’m tired of story after story and him dragging us on and you know, leaving us in the dark. Just state what it is. If you’re sick, you’re sick, but the fact is that you don’t want to fight in the division. I mean, he’s done his thing; he’s a legend, whatever. Just move on.

“Let us move on. Let’s fight. I’m ready to fight if it makes sense. I’m not just gonna fight fights to fight, to get nowhere.”

As for his own next move, Rockhold, who just got back into the win column against former WSOF two-division champ David Branch in September following a year and three months off, said he’s gunning for only one bout – a title shot against the man whom he believes to be the real middleweight champion in Whittaker. Anything else, he said, just isn’t worth his time:

“There’s been talks all along the way about potential this, potential that. They gotta make backup plans. They’re trying to make fights like Yoel Romero right now. Why would I fight Yoel Romero when there’s no clear-cut person fighting Whittaker? Obviously I want to fight for the title, and if that’s available, I’m not gonna sign any fuckin’ fight. I wanna fight for the title, and if that’s available, that’s what I’m gonna do.”

With offers of a so-called number one contender fight being pushed his way, Rockhold scoffed at those flimsy prospects by legitimately questioning what such a bout was worth when St-Pierre didn’t even need to win one himself after never fighting in the division his whole career.

The former champ framed his disgruntled attitude with the UFC by focusing on the recent reports that they had offered Nate Diaz a welterweight title shot, which he believed to be absolutely ludicrous given that many top fighters had spent their lives preparing to actually deserve it.

Overall, the state of the UFC is making him mad, and he believes they need to formulate a realistic way to grant title shots by moving back to what made the UFC and MMA as a whole great in the first place:

“And don’t try to make me fight fights, when you’re telling me, what’s a number one contender fight these days? Did Georges St-Pierre fight a number one contender fight? I don’t think so. So there’s no point in fighting guys when there’s no structure, there’s no rhyme or reason to who gets a title shot. And Nate Diaz is my boy, but the fact that they were even negotiating Nate Diaz for a welterweight title shot, it’s disrespectful to everybody in the division. These guys work their asses off to get where they are, and the sport is fuckin’ pissing me off. It’s losing its integrity and it needs to get back to its roots.”

Finally, Rockhold summed his thoughts up about the UFC with one strong statement that the new owners have put their focus completely into the wrong place:

“I can’t understand what their thought process is these days. They obviously don’t know have a clear understanding of what they’re doing. They’re not following the recipe that built this company. I don’t know, man. Invest in the fighters. No offense, but your investment is into Dana White. Dana White’s not selling pay-per-views. Invest in the fighters and they’ll solve your problems. You’ll hit your marks. You’ll sell your pay-per-views, and do your thing. But, get it straight.”

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Georges St-Pierre Issues Statement On Recent Health Issues

News, unfortunately, arrived today that recently-crowned UFC middleweight champion Georges St-Pierre was going to be on the sidelines for an indefinite period of time due to a battle with colitis after winning the belt from Michael Bisping at November’s UFC 217. The debate was already rife with uncertainty as to whether or not St-Pierre would […]

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News, unfortunately, arrived today that recently-crowned UFC middleweight champion Georges St-Pierre was going to be on the sidelines for an indefinite period of time due to a battle with colitis after winning the belt from Michael Bisping at November’s UFC 217.

The debate was already rife with uncertainty as to whether or not St-Pierre would unify the titles with deserving interim champion Robert Whittaker, who is recovering from an injury himself and issued a statement of encouragement to St-Pierre.

The champion then issued a statement of his own to his official Facebook page, where he detailed his symptoms and how is he is combating them before declaring his health was obviously his number one priority:

“I now understand the health issues that I had during my last training camp… I hoped my condition would improve after the fight but unfortunately it got worse and I had to go straight to the hospital for a colonoscopy when I came back from vacation last Wednesday. The diagnosis is ulcerative colitis and I am now taking medication that will hopefully appease the symptoms. My health is my #1 priority right now, I’m still a very happy man, thanks for your support!!!”

The news has also unfortunately fueled the flames of those who believed St-Pierre did not intend to defend the middleweight title in the first place because even if he wanted to, he could not for an indefinite period of time regardless.

It’s unknown when Whittaker plans to return to action after sustaining an apparently serious knee injury while winning the interim title versus Yoel Romero this July, but reports have ‘The Reaper’ looking to return at March’s pay-per-view (PPV) card from Perth, Australia.

Now, he may be looking for a new opponent even if St-Pierre was never truly a realistic possibility in the first place.

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Robert Whittaker Reacts To Georges St-Pierre Being Sidelined

Disappointing news hit the UFC early today when UFC President Dana White confirmed that newly-crowned middleweight champion Georges St-Pierre was going to be sidelined ‘for a minute’ due to colitis. The all-time great former welterweight boss made a triumphant return to the Octagon after nearly four years in semi-retirement at last month’s (Nov. 4, 2017) […]

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Disappointing news hit the UFC early today when UFC President Dana White confirmed that newly-crowned middleweight champion Georges St-Pierre was going to be sidelined ‘for a minute’ due to colitis.

The all-time great former welterweight boss made a triumphant return to the Octagon after nearly four years in semi-retirement at last month’s (Nov. 4, 2017) UFC 217 from Madison Square Garden, dropping and submitting former champ Michael Bisping to become the unlikely champion in his first bout at 185 pounds.

The win set him up for a title unification bout with surging 26-year-old interim champion Robert Whittaker, who had locked up the placeholder belt by defeating Yoel Romero at UFC 213 this summer. However, St-Pierre revealed he had suffered a concussion during his fight with ‘The Count,’ and will now deal with a serious digestive system disease.

Not surprisingly, many fans took it as a sign that St-Pierre was trying to get out of defending the 185-pound title, something many felt he wouldn’t do even before winning it. But true to his always-classy style, Whittaker reacted to the news by encouraging St-Pierre to heal up on his Instagram account:

@georgesstpierre @danawhite @ufc #unify #anywhere

A post shared by Robert Whittaker (@robwhittakermma) on Dec 2, 2017 at 1:01am PST

Known as one of the nicest and classiest fighters outside the cage while quickly becoming one of the steamrolling forces of nature inside it, Whittaker doesn’t appear to be in a rush to get his rumored title bout with St-Pierre.

Part of that may be the fact that he significantly injured his knee while fighting Romero and could still be healing up, but the uncertainty surrounding St-Pierre’s return to middleweight could lead to what most thought would happen actually happening – that St-Pierre never defends his title like he promised he would prior to his UFC return.

If he doesn’t, the UFC may be better off making Whittaker the interim champion due to the constant state of flux at 185 recently after Bisping shocked the world by knocking out former champ Luke Rockhold in June 2016, only to defend it against the retiring Dan Henderson then sit on the sidelines for more than a year waiting for St-Pierre to return.

It could be argued no UFC division save for possibly lightweight is a bigger mess right now, and with 185 being one of the most talented arenas in all of MMA, the UFC will need to sort out the mess heading into 2018 if they want the dismal pay-per-view numbers of 2017 to bounce back in any fashion.

Despite Whittaker’s calm reaction, should the UFC truly let ‘Rush’ hold up a division he may have never intended to defend the title in?

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GSP Confirms UFC 217 Injury Could Be Concussion

Newly-crowned UFC middleweight champion Georges St-Pierre insists he doesn’t want to “freeze” the 185-pound division after submitting Michael Bisping at UFC 217, yet he still won’t fully commit to a unification bout with interim champion Robert Whittaker for his next fight. Like his comeback almost four years in the making was before, St-Pierre’s fighting future is uncertain, […]

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Like his comeback almost four years in the making was before, St-Pierre’s fighting future is uncertain, partly because of a UFC 217 injury he revealed to reporters on a media conference call in New York yesterday.

The UFC legend elaborated on the ailment in a special episode of The MMA Hour (quotes via MMA Mania) after the media call, describing the nature of the injury and how painful it was, noting he could hardly posture up to throw ground strikes at times:

“It’s why after the fight I couldn’t even tie up my shoes. My neck couldn’t even move, I had an incredible swelling in one of the muscles on the back of the neck, and during the fight when I was on the ground it was very hard for me to posture up to strike. Even know you look at me, my head goes good this way, but this way I’m restricted a little. It’s a lot better than it was, but it was very painful.”

St-Pierre believes it could be a concussion, definitely a serious matter in an age when fighter safety is coming to the forefront of concerns about the sport:

“When he hit me I saw blurry for a bit. I don’t know if I had a concussion or something. It may have been a concussion. I keep fighting because when it happens, obviously survival instincts kick in. But when you watch the fight, that particular thing, it looked pretty insignificant. But it wasn’t insignificant when I received the shot. It hurt me really bad.

“It’s not the force of the blow, it’s the precision of it. It’s not Michael’s fault, you’re in the heat of the moment, you fight, I probably would have done the same thing, nothing wrong with that.”

Harrowing words from the longtime former welterweight ruler, who previously said he had lost periods of time during his highly controversial split decision win over Johny Hendricks in November 2013, a fight after which St-Pierre vacated his long-held belt and went into semi-retirement until now.

He said he’s going to take a vacation to clear his mind before deciding on his next fight, yet even though he’s the middleweight champion, a new head injury, especially at his age, may not be the best start to the final leg of his all-time great career.

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Georges St-Pierre Reveals Significant Injury Suffered At UFC 217

One of the hottest topics in the UFC is newly-crowned middleweight champion Georges St-Pierre’s next fight following his title-sealing submission win over Michael Bisping in the main event of last weekend’s (Sat., Nov. 4, 2017) UFC 217 from Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York. Dana White insists he’s going to unify the 185-pound […]

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Dana White insists he’s going to unify the 185-pound belts with interim champion Robert Whittaker next, while the specter of a massive super fight with Conor McGregor looms large. But speaking during a media call in New York (via MMA Junkie) today, St-Pierre revealed that whatever his next move may be, he’s going to require some time to heal from a neck injury he suffered while battling Bisping.

Despite the injury, however, he said he plans to defend his new title:

“There’s going to be news about it in the next few weeks, but I don’t plan to hold the title and not defend it.

“It looked very insignificant when it happened,” St-Pierre said. “It wasn’t the strength of the hit. It was more the precision of it. It’s not his fault. We’re not allowed to hit there, but it was just in the heat of the fight, and it’s normal.

“My neck was so inflamed, when I was on the floor, I had a hard time posturing up because it was hurting very bad. It felt like I couldn’t contract my head to posture up. After the fight when I cooled down, it was terrible. It was like my neck couldn’t move. Now it’s still sore, but it got a lot better. I got treatment on it, so I’ll be back 100 percent.”

So while it sounds like a serious injury, St-Pierre insists he’ll be back to full strength soon. His next bout still remains a mystery, but he said fighting Whittaker is in his contract, so his agent will soon meet with White and the UFC after he goes on vacation to clear his head:

(UFC President) Dana White is going to talk with my agent, they’re going to figure it out, and we’ll see after I come back from vacation.

“We’ll see what I want to do and where my head is,” he said. “I have no intention of holding onto the belt and freezing the division. That’s not what I want to do. Robert Whittaker is in my contract. If I want to fight again, it has to be against Robert Whittaker at 185 (pounds). That’s in my contract. I cannot, for example, go fight (welterweight champ) Tyron Woodley or go fight another guy.”

St-Pierre remained coy when asked if UFC 217 may have been his last fight, noting that it was the same question framed differently and that he hadn’t even made his own mind up yet:

“I don’t know,” he said. “It’s the same question from a different angle. That’s why I can’t talk about this – I don’t know right now.

“I understand it’s normal, but I don’t even know for myself what’s going to be the next move.”

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