The MMA community is currently anticipating just what Conor McGregor’s next move will be. On a weekend without a UFC or Bellator event, the “Notorious” UFC lightweight champion stoked that fire in a big way earlier this week. Opening up on a variety of options in his interview with Caroline Pearce at “An Evening With […]
The MMA community is currently anticipating just what Conor McGregor’s next move will be.
On a weekend without a UFC or Bellator event, the “Notorious” UFC lightweight champion stoked that fire in a big way earlier this week. Opening up on a variety of options in his interview with Caroline Pearce at “An Evening With Conor McGregor” from Glasgow, McGregor proclaimed it was finally time to defend his title and that he would beat Floyd Mayweather in a rematch in the boxing ring.
Leaving all the doors open, McGregor also wouldn’t rule out his sometimes-discussed match-up with longtime former UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre, who will return to action after nearly four years off when he fights current UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping for the title in the main event of November 4’s UFC 217 from New York City.
So while defending his title is supposedly his top priority (we’ll have to wait and see if that holds true), the UFC’s only simultaneous two-division champ acknowledged St-Pierre could be a good option down the road. However, it may not matter according to the Irishman, who revealed in his interview (quotes via Peter Carroll of MMA Fighting) that he believes Michael Bisping will ‘whoop his a–‘ when they square off in a month’s time:
“It’s another money fight, even though he’s been retired,” he said. “I don’t know, I think he’s going to get his ass whooped by Bisping. To be honest I think it’s a mistake for him to step in at that weight after so long out.”
It’s definitely another “money fight” for the man who has made that term a reality during his meteoric rise to redefining how an MMA superstar picks his fights, regardless of if you believe it’s good or bad for the sport. Wanting only the biggest fights to close out his historic career himself, St-Pierre has been rumored to be planning on calling out “The Notorious” if he does get past Bisping.
Should the brash Irishman accept, or does he have too much on his schedule already?
Currently on the sidelines for nearly a full year, UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping has been derided as one of the worst UFC titleholders in recent memory for his accused unwillingness to take on the top contenders in the talented 185-pound fray. But that’s just fine with him, as his meticulously planned ‘maneuvering’ has earned […]
Currently on the sidelines for nearly a full year, UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping has been derided as one of the worst UFC titleholders in recent memory for his accused unwillingness to take on the top contenders in the talented 185-pound fray.
But that’s just fine with him, as his meticulously planned ‘maneuvering’ has earned him – deserved or not – a title fight with longtime former welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre in the main event of November 4’s UFC 217 from Madison Square Garden in New York City.
Although the bout will feature the previously awaited comeback of one of MMA’s biggest overall stars in St-Pierre, the growing consensus from the majority of the mixed martial arts community is that it’s a strange fight considering St-Pierre has never fought in the division and will have been out for almost exactly four years by fight time. Again, however, it’s the perceived payday Bisping appears to be looking for, and even though he doesn’t exactly have the best dance partner in terms of trash talk, that, of course, won’t stop the brash “Count” from spouting off on “GSP.”
Case in point, he recently offered a bold prediction for the title fight on his “Believe You Me” podcast this week (via MMA Junkie), claiming he will stop St-Pierre’s grappling with his movement and knock him out in the first round:
“Generally, when I fight wrestlers in the past, I move around a lot,” Bisping said. “I utilize a lot of lateral movement, forward and back movement, side-to-side, because if you’re moving, it’s hard for a wrestler to shoot a double leg on you because you’re a moving target. I won’t be doing that this time.
“I’m going to stand right in front of him, I’m going to plant my feet, I’m going to walk him down, put him on the back foot, and I’m going to knock him out in the first round. You have my word.”
Photo Credit: Joe Camporeale – USA TODAY Sports
St-Pierre has only been knocked out in the first round once in his infamous upset loss to Matt Serra at UFC 69 in 2007. It’s regarded as the bout that caused “Rush” to turn from a risk-taking knockout artist to a much more cautious wrestling-centered fighter who picked opponents apart with superior athleticism and gameplans.
It’s true that Bisping has shown he’s more than willing to push the pace at his opponents, especially during his recent run of success where he’s done just that against Anderson Silva and Dan Henderson, but aside from his title-winning knockout of Luke Rockhold at June 2016’s UFC 199, it hasn’t translated into many knockout stoppages.
Perhaps he can score another by facing a man who competed his entire career at 170 pounds and has been out of fighting for quite a long stretch. Do you believe Bisping will knock out St-Pierre?
Following his TKO loss to Floyd Mayweather in “The Money Fight” on August 26, the MMA world is anxiously awaiting just what UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor’s next move will be. A rumor recently surfaced that longtime former welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre would call out “The Notorious” if he were to get by middleweight champion Michael […]
Following his TKO loss to Floyd Mayweather in “The Money Fight” on August 26, the MMA world is anxiously awaiting just what UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor’s next move will be.
A rumor recently surfaced that longtime former welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre would call out “The Notorious” if he were to get by middleweight champion Michael Bisping in his comeback bout in the main event of November 4’s UFC 217 from New York, and it’s hardly a bad idea given the UFC’s need for big-name bouts after a horrendous 2017.
So that’s naturally lead to some discussion about whom would win the proposed super fight, and former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Miesha Tate recently weighed in on the topic on her “MMA Tonight” podcast (via MMA Fighting). According to “cupcake,” McGregor has proven her wrong when she doubted him, so she can no longer count him out.
In her eyes, he holds the speed advantage over the larger GSP – in addition to a strategic edge:
“Conor McGregor, I’ve underestimated the guy a number of times, thinking he wasn’t going to win some of the fights that he won and he did it. The man is truly in a league of his own. When it comes to his game planning, when it comes to his trash talking, when it comes to getting inside people’s heads, nobody does it better than Conor McGregor. So I absolutely would not count him out in a fight like that.
“I think the speed favors him. I think he has great striking and I think the fact that GSP’s been out for so long, I think Conor McGregor can put together a strategy to beat pretty much anybody and I think the matchup actually favors Conor.”
High praise from a woman who’s been around the top levels of the sport for many years, one who’s admittedly a St-Pierre fan. She knows the precision he brings to the octagon, yet gave McGregor a mental edge she deemed difficult to get around for the all-time great:
“I feel almost bad saying that because I’ve been a huge GSP fan for a really long time. He’s perfect when he fights. Maybe not the most exciting fighter you’ve ever watched but he’s almost perfect and that’s so hard to do. If you’ve been an athlete in any sport, to have a perfect game or a perfect match or a perfect bout, it almost never happens.
“You watch him go out there and he’s pretty much perfect in all of his fights. He never waivers from his strategy and he’s like a robot, like somebody’s controlling a controller somewhere and he’s just doing exactly what he needs to do to get through those fights. But I think with this one, Conor’s just so hard to beat and he’s so hard to get around mentally. I think the speed actually, being the smaller guy, does favor Conor.”
Met with at least some degree of doubt, Tate acknowledged that picking the Irish star over St-Pierre may sound a bit crazy, but cited the fact that McGregor has predicted the result of many of his high-profile bouts.
She thought he was going to lose to Nate Diaz in their UFC 202 rematch, and he did not. Tate also thinks St-Pierre has never been made to deal with the nonstop mental onslaught of an elite trash talker like McGregor, something that could affect the fight.
To top it all off, Tate thought he would be easily handled by Mayweather in the boxing ring, yet he again proved her wrong by lasting 10 rounds with arguably the greatest defensive boxer of all time. For that reason, the still-evolving McGregor would do well against the returning – and rusty – all-time great former champion in the potential match:
“Yes. I know that sounds crazy, but dude, crazier things have been said about Conor and he’s done it. He literally predicts his exact what he’s gonna do in every fight. When he lost to Nate Diaz, I thought he was gonna lose again and he came out and he had the right game plan. He’s just brilliant. He knows how to figure out people.
“Not to mention, GSP has never had to deal with someone’s berating, that constant mental barrage that Conor McGregor does. Something is there. People haven’t quite figured it out but there’s something, an element that Conor McGregor adds that’s not just his skillset. He gets inside people’s heads and he ruins them before they even step inside the octagon. To say that he couldn’t do to GSP when he’s done it to everyone else, it’s insane to think that he couldn’t do that.
“So I just think he would probably do well. He’s evolving, he’s very athletic, he’s heavy-handed. I think he could knock out a lot of guys bigger than him. Look how well he did against Mayweather. I was so impressed with how he did there. I thought he was gonna lose that fight handily and he hung in there tough.”
Former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold recently got back to his winning ways, finishing veteran David Branch in the second round of their UFC Fight Night 116 main event, which took place in Pittsburgh on Sept. 16, 2017. Now focused on retaining his title, Rockhold was asked on yesterday’s (Sept. 25, 2017) edition of The […]
Former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold recently got back to his winning ways, finishing veteran David Branch in the second round of their UFC Fight Night 116 main event, which took place in Pittsburgh on Sept. 16, 2017.
Now focused on retaining his title, Rockhold was asked on yesterday’s (Sept. 25, 2017) edition of The MMA Hour if he’d be interesting in fighting fellow top contender Yoel Romero, who’s coming off of a loss to interim champion Robert Whittaker at UFC 215 this past July.
Rockhold, however, made it clear that he’d rather fight Whittaker, although he also said that he’s uninterested in fighting for ‘little change’:
“I’d be interested in Whittaker. I want the title. Everything is gauged to get to the title, to get the money. I want money fights, that’s what I am here for,” he said.
“I am turning 33, I’m not getting any younger and I want to set myself up. I’m not fighting for this little change, you know. I want the real money. Everything is structured to be there. Like I said before, I want a path, I want a direction and with both titles being held hostage, there is no point fighting anybody until they straighten things out. Or unless they pull up the title,” Rockhold said.
Whittaker, however, is currently dealing with an injury. Middleweight champion Michael Bisping, who stole the title from Rockhold in June 2016, on the other hand, is set to defend his 185-pound strap against Georges St. Pierre at UFC 217 on Nov. 4, 2017.
With that being said, Rockhold also said that a move up to light heavyweight could certainly take place for him in the future:
“Obviously I’d like to finish my business here at Middleweight, but I have been thinking about it for a long time. I’m a lot more explosive. The weight cut is definitely affecting me, and it takes time to shake off that nerve and get the feel back. I feel good at Light Heavyweight I feel great.”
Legendary longtime former UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre will finally return to the cage after nearly four years off when he faces middleweight champion Michael Bisping in the main event of November 4’s UFC 217 from Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York. Many have derided the fight based on St-Pierre’s lengthy absence […]
Legendary longtime former UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre will finally return to the cage after nearly four years off when he faces middleweight champion Michael Bisping in the main event of November 4’s UFC 217 from Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York.
Many have derided the fight based on St-Pierre’s lengthy absence and the fact that he has never fought at middleweight, but the MMA legend has insisted he only wants to come back for the biggest and best fights. If he does get by ‘The Count,’ who’s gradually become the most hated man in the 185-pound division, he’s aiming for one that would be much, much bigger than even his fight versus Bisping indeed.
At least, that’s according to St-Pierre’s TriStar Gym training partner Olivier Aubin-Mercier, who revealed to TSN (via The Irish Mirror) that GSP will call out McGregor if he wins the middleweight title at UFC 217:
“I think what will be probable is that he will call out Conor after. That’s what I would do. I think for the UFC, it’s a really smart fight to do. It’s a win-win for them. Well, win-win, kind of, for short term.”
There’ve been whispers St-Pierre had a plan to eventually face the biggest name in mixed martial arts right now, and you couldn’t blame him, as a bout versus the ultra-popular “Notorious” would be the biggest UFC bout of all-time.
Following his record-setting pay-per-view (PPV) payday with Floyd Mayweather in the boxing ring last month, the lightweight champion is rumored to be coming back for a trilogy bout with longtime rival Nate Diaz, although it’s nothing but rumor at this point.
If St-Pierre can shake off the dust and beat the brash champion, who will have out of action for over a year when they finally meet, however, then he could have an arguably even bigger fish on the line if St-Pierre does call him out.
With rival Luke Rockhold calling middleweight champion Michael Bisping’s title reign ‘the worst in UFC history’ last night, ‘The Count’s’ scope of annoyance has now spread to the top of the UFC welterweight division as well. No. 4-ranked welterweight Jorge Masvidal, who will face former title contender Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson at Nov. 4’s UFC 217, […]
With rival Luke Rockhold calling middleweight champion Michael Bisping’s title reign ‘the worst in UFC history’ last night, ‘The Count’s’ scope of annoyance has now spread to the top of the UFC welterweight division as well.
No. 4-ranked welterweight Jorge Masvidal, who will face former title contender Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson at Nov. 4’s UFC 217, where Bisping takes on returning legend Georges St-Pierre in the main event, recently told a head-scratching story to Submission Radio (via MMA Mania) that involved a drunken ‘Count’ and the UFC brass.
Needless to say, it has Bisping at the top of Masvidal’s list of ‘hoes to slap’ after Masvidal attempted to incite more of a faceoff but was met with only a dude-bro type response from ‘The Count’:
“Bitchping Michael, whatever. I just think that’s the number one hoe I gotta slap, man. You know, that dude is a child. I’ve seen him in Vegas, the first time I’ve seen him actually in all of my life, and it was after he said all types of craziness on social media and telling me something (like) ‘if he ever saw me.’
“So, I happened to be walking out of my hotel elevator and he’s getting out of a cab stumbling drunk, and this is like eight in the morning, and I see him and I just start staring at him and we were in the same line of path trajectory. He went completely the other side and just not focused on me, didn’t look at me, nothing. I look at him and I go, ‘Bisping, what’s up?’
“And I raise my hands up to see what his thought process is, what he’s thinking. And the whole UFC PR was in there and they was dying laughing because he threw up the cowabunga sign, just walked away and got in the elevator. And since then I knew he was a little hoe. I already knew before, but that like extra clarified it for me.”
Much of the criticism directed at Bisping has been based on his seeming willingness to avoid fighting the top contenders in the deeply talented middleweight division, fighters like Yoel Romero and Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza whom Robert Whittaker knocked off before getting injured himself, leaving Bisping with a clear shot at his coveted monster payday with ‘GSP.’
But Masvidal’s beef is much more simple in that he was just trying to clear up an alleged social media beef with the drunken Bisping, only to be brushed off with a ‘cowabunga’ sign.
While it’s not a fight that’s likely to happen anytime soon – especially with Bisping teasing retirement after UFC 217 – ‘The Count’ still stands high on ‘Gamebred’s’ list of hoes to slap. Or something.
For now, both men have two extremely talented challenges to focus on when the UFC returns to Madison Square Garden for their awaited pay-per-view on Nov. 4.
