Bisping On Possible Interim Title: I Hope Whittaker Beats Yoel’s Brains Out

It’s looking like the verbally agreed to bout between Michael Bisping and Georges St-Pierre isn’t going to happen.

This past March UFC President Dana White announced that former welterweight king “GSP” would be making his Octagon return at the 185-pound weight-class and would be receiving an immediate title shot against Michael Bisping. A target date in July seemed to be the promotion’s hope for the middleweight title clash, however, earlier this month St-Pierre claimed he wouldn’t be ready to compete until after October.

As a result, Dana White called off the bout between “The Count” and St-Pierre, naming No. 1-ranked Yoel Romero as the new challenger for the middleweight strap. White confirmed that the Canadian’s mixed martial arts (MMA) return would be against the welterweight champion (seeing as current champ Tyron Woodley is expected to defend his title against Demian Maia first).

Bisping, however, recently claimed he has been dealing with a lingering knee injury which will hinder his ability to compete this summer, thus opening the door for an interim title fight between Romero and No. 3-ranked Robert Whittaker.

“The Count” took to his podcast, Believe You Me, to comment on the whole situation in the middleweight division and stated that while he has yet to hear any official word, he believes his fight with St-Pierre isn’t going to happen (quotes via MMA Fighting):

“I know they’re trying to move on from the GSP fight. From my understanding, it looks like the GSP fight isn’t happening. I’ve yet to have a discussion with them about this. From my understanding, Georges still wants to fight me and I still want to fight Georges. So this is what I want to know: I want to know what the problem is. If the UFC have moved on, they got tired of waiting, whatever. But to my understanding, the fight was never gonna really happen in July anyway. I heard that from some sources right at the start. They said, ‘we’re hoping for July 8th but it’s probably not gonna be that.’

“Now they’re saying they want to do a fight in July and my knee isn’t gonna be ready in July. [St-Pierre] wasn’t gonna be ready until October, November. So to me, that plays perfectly but I know the UFC wants me to fight and they’re saying if I can’t fight that they’re gonna do an interim title fight.”

Bisping went on to claim that he believes an interim title bout is next for the 185-pound division due to his inability to compete. His leading candidates for the bout would be Romero and Whittaker.

While Bisping holds no ill-will towards Whittaker, he has a great deal of disrespect for the top-ranked Cuban challenger, who the Englishman believes is nothing more than a cheater. “The Count” said that if Romero and Whittaker meet in the Octagon, he’s hoping that the New Zealander will ‘beat the brains’ out of Romero:

“I’m assuming that they’re probably gonna do an interim title fight but I’ve got to speak to Dana. . . Probably Whittaker vs. Yoel, if I were the matchmakers, that’s what I’d do. Whittaker, we all know this, he’s on an absolute tear. I’ve got nothing against Robert Whittaker. Fine young man, great fighter, fights hard, got a lot of respect for him. Can’t say the same about Yoel. Yoel is certainly not on my Christmas card list. We all know my thoughts on him. He’s a scumbag, he’s a cheat, and that’s that. So if they do fight I, hope Whittaker beats the brains out of him.”

“I couldn’t care less. If they want to do an interim title fight, so be it. I understand they’ve got to keep the division moving. It’s been a while and like I said, I can’t fight, certainly for the next few months anyway. So from the UFC’s side, I understand that.”

His chances may not be great, but Bisping is still hoping his fight with St-Pierre will come through. The middleweight champ feels as though he’s owed this fight after toppling the best the division has to offer, and will tell Dana White exactly that when he speaks to him again:

“It probably isn’t happening but let’s not give up all hope,” he said. “It’s not done. We’re gonna have the conversation, I’m gonna put my best foot forward that I should still fight GSP. That is my objective. When I speak to Dana, I’m gonna say ‘Dana, I feel like you owe me this fight.’ We had a deal. I fought everybody they put in front of me my whole career, I’ve been a soldier for the organization, so we’ll see what happens.”