Dana White Will Be ‘Pissed’ If Georges St-Pierre Vacates UFC Title
UFC President Dana White has made it clear that he is not going to be happy with newly crowned UFC middleweight champion Georges St-Pierre if he decides not to stay in the middleweight division to unify his championship.
If you even bring up St-Pierre potentially going back on his word then brings White’s blood to a simmer.
It’s well known by now that St-Pierre returned earlier this month after a nearly four-year hiatus to win the middleweight title with a submission victory in the third round over Michael Bisping at UFC 217. The win made St-Pierre just the fourth fighter in UFC history to win titles in two divisions. He now joins Randy Couture, B.J. Penn, and Conor McGregor.
“I don’t want to hear that,” White said during a media luncheon Tuesday at UFC headquarters (transcript courtesy of MMA Junkie). “That’s not what I want to hear. I want to hear he’s going to defend his 185-pound title. That’s the agreement we made. That’s the deal we made when we made the deal (for him to come back).”
Going into UFC 217, the big question going around was what GSP would do if he won the title from Bisping. He is used to fighting at welterweight.
Will he stay at middleweight to unify the title with interim champion Robert Whittaker? Or would St-Pierre turn his attention to a potential fight with welterweight champion Tyron Woodley or even lightweight champion Conor McGregor?
Keep in mind that St-Pierre is contractually obligated to fight Whittaker next.
“We’ll see what I want to do and where my head is,” St-Pierre said days after his win. “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.”
The UFC boss is also in the mindset that he can’t force somebody to fight. At the end of the day, White stated that he would be “super pissed” if St-Pierre doesn’t honor his contract and won’t understand what it is GSP would be trying to accomplish.
“I’m going to be super pissed, and I don’t know where we go from there,” White said. “Who’s better to fight at 170? You got Woodley, you got (Stephen) ‘Wonderboy’ (Thompson), you got (Yoel) Romero, and then you got Luke Rockhold. F*cking monsters. They’re all monsters.
“There’s no fight that looks like, ‘Oh, maybe this is the fight for me to take.’ Listen, you looked at Bisping like he was a tune-up. You got your tune-up. There’s nothing but f*cking animals at 85 and 70.”
“There’s no good options. To sit there and try to hand-pick people of where you want to go and everything else, you can’t in this f*cking sport. They’re all nasty. You’re a fighter. Get in there, and f*cking see who you can beat. You wanted to f*cking come back. Welcome back. It’s ugly.”
