Former UFC welterweight champion, Georges St-Pierre (25-2 MMA, 19-2 UFC) said on Friday that a “minor eye injury” will p revent him from moving up his comeback fight with Michael Bisping, Bleacher Report shared.
St-Pierre Postponed The Fight
Apparently, MMA Fighting reported that the UFC tried to schedule St-Pierre’s battle with Bisping for July, but Georges revealed that he wouldn’t be ready until the end of the year. Now, the former champ is speaking out about the reason for the delay.
“Trust me; I’m not the kind of guy who thinks, ‘Hey, I’m going to make everybody wait for me. I don’t want to fight during the summer, I want to take my time,” St-Pierre explained.
“That’s not the reason. If it were up to me, I would come back. The reason is I had a problem with my eye. I had a minor injury.”
Did The UFC Know About His Injury?
St-Pierre claimed that the UFC not only knew about the injury but pressured him into speeding up his recovery so he could fight in July. He refused to comply because his vision hasn’t returned to his eye, yet.
“My vision has not been back yet. It will be back. It’s something very minor,” Georges said. “The doctor insisted for me that I don’t spar until September.”
When St-Pierre announced he would return to spar against Bisping, the UFC fans couldn’t help but get excited about the fight. However, there was some confusion about when the throwdown would happen.
Georges hoped that he could be fight-ready by July 8 at UFC 213 in the main event of International Fight week. It made sense, and many assumed that what would happen. Then, he posted a video telling Bisping that he would be ready to fight him anytime after October.
Georges St-Pierre reveals the delay behind his return to the UFC Octagon… pic.twitter.com/aFznISbvmx
— UFC on BT Sport (@btsportufc) May 27, 2017
UFC fans were in shock; they expected a July fight now; they have to wait three more months to see this epic battle? UFC president, Dana White decided to cancel the fight. According to MMA Junkie , the biggest question on everyone’s mind is, did the UFC know about the fight and encourage St-Pierre to “speed up” his recovery process to fight in July?
According to Georges, the UFC knew about his injury back when he signed his contract to return in February. He said he told them, at that time, he wouldn’t be able to compete until at least October.
“The UFC was aware of it,” St-Pierre said.
“They knew I couldn’t fight during the summer, but they still insisted on doing that press conference with Michael Bisping. And when it happened, we were not very excited about the idea, but we wanted that fight, so we decided to do it, but then it turned into a negative thing because it took so long. But UFC knew. Everyone knew. The people concerned knew that that was the case, but they still tried to put pressure on me to fight in July. That’s the reason why I’m coming out publicly today about the reason why I’m not fighting this summer.”
Georges St-Pierre reveals eye injury delays return to UFC — https://t.co/zePSiNYBi6 pic.twitter.com/WaAnbLCSaA
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) May 26, 2017
Bisping Isn’t Able To Fight, Either
Even if St-Pierre hadn’t hurt his eye, the fight would have been canceled. Michael Bisping revealed that he had been sidelined due to a knee injury, with no timeline of when he will be allowed to return to the Octagon.
With no other option, White canceled the bout and booked an interim middleweight title fight between Yoel Romero and Robert Whittaker.
Dana threatened to scrap the Bisping and St-Pierre fight altogether. However, both fighters believe that the bout will happen later in the year. They both need some time to recover from their injuries.
Do you think Michael Bisping and George St. Pierre will meet in the Octagon later this year?
[Featured Image by Mark Blinch/Getty Images]