Dana White: Bisping To Defend Against Yoel Romero Next
Published on May 11th, 2017 5:!9 pm ESTWritten By: Dave Manuel
The planned Middleweight title fight between Georges St. Pierre and Michael Bisping has officially been called off.
According to UFC President Dana White, the promotion is not going to wait for St. Pierre to return to the Octagon and "hold up the entire division". St. Pierre recently released a statement in which he said that he would be ready for the Bisping fight anytime after October, and this clearly ruffled some feathers at the UFC.
Instead, the plan is for Bisping to defend his title against Yoel Romero sometime in the near future. Bisping had said that he was OK with waiting until the fall to fight St. Pierre, though the UFC clearly has other plans. Presumably, if Bisping can get past Romero, the UFC would still go ahead with the St. Pierre/Bisping fight.
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Bisping was content with waiting for the St. Pierre fight, as he stands to make millions of dollars from the contest.
The idea was to have St. Pierre and Bisping fight at UFC 213 on July 8th, though St. Pierre apparently wasn't ready to take the fight that soon. The UFC held a press conference in March to announce the fight, though they were surely shocked to learn that St. Pierre wasn't close to being in fighting shape.
Instead, the UFC has egg on their face, as the planned St. Pierre/Bisping fight has now been scrapped.
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There is always the possibility that the UFC is using this development to press GSP into fighting sooner, though St. Pierre has never been one to bow to pressure.
Michael Bisping isn't happy, Georges St. Pierre isn't happy, though MMA purists are overjoyed that the rightful #1 contender, Yoel Romero, looks to be getting his rightful title shot.
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Yoel Romero has opened as a significant 1.38 favourite to defeat Michael Bisping, while Bisping is currently a 3.00 underdog.
It is quite rare indeed when a defending champion enters a fight as a 3.00 underdog.
