Georges St-Pierre Will Fight Welterweight Champion Upon Return To UFC

The UFC’s plans for the return of former UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre fell a bit short. Originally, “GSP,” who has not fought since 2013 was set to challenge Michael Bisping for the middleweight title later this year. Although the UFC held a press conference, they did not set a date.

According to UFC President Dana White, the reasoning behind the fight being canceled was due to GSP not wanting to fight until later this year (October or November). That did not sit well with the UFC, so officials decided to scrap the bout and book Bisping against top title contender Yoel Romero, which left GSP in limbo. That includes what division he would fight in and his opponent as well as when he would fight next. Some of that limbo has made progress as White recently came out in an interview and stated that St-Pierre would fight at welterweight in his return fight, which makes the most sense, and he would challenge for the title.

“[St-Pierre] says he will fight whoever the 170-pound champion is when he comes back,” White said during a recent interview with TSN.

Now with the middleweight division unclogged, this may cause some concerns within the welterweight division and one fight in particular. That fight is Demian Maia, who has been on fire as of late. The UFC has promised Maia that his next fight would be against division champion, Tyron Woodley. The only issue with that fight is that UFC officials do not believe that Maia can sell tickets and PPV’s. The only thing that could help Maia is that St-Pierre isn’t expected back around October or November, so Maia could fight for the title before then GSP getting the winner of that fight.

It should be noted that since Bisping is still recovering from a recently-repaired knee, the UFC is still highly-considering staging an interim title fight between Romero and Robert Whittaker.

“We’re trying to put together that Bisping-Romero fight,” White said. “If [Bisping] can’t fight this summer, we’ll probably create an interim title between Romero and Robert Whittaker.”