Returning Georges St. Pierre Opens as Favourite Over Bisping
Published on March 1st, 2017 3:41 pm ESTEarlier today, UFC President Dana White formally announced the return of Georges St. Pierre to the promotion. In addition, White revealed that St. Pierre will be challenging Michael Bisping for the Middleweight title in the second half of 2017.
There were a number of names that had been mentioned as possibilities for St. Pierre's first fight back in the UFC, including Conor McGregor, Nick Diaz and Michael Bisping. In the end, St. Pierre elected to challenge Bisping for the Middleweight title. This was music to Bisping's ears, as he has been craving a big payday before he rides off into the sunset.
St. Pierre will be moving up to 185 pounds to square off against Bisping. In addition, when you factor in the significant ring rust that St. Pierre will surely have (he has been out of action for over 3 years), this should be a very close fight.
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Here are the current betting odds for this tilt:
Georges St. Pierre, -125
Michael Bisping, -105
As you can see, St. Pierre is the razor-thin favourite to win. According to these odds, a successful $125 wager on St. Pierre would return a total profit of $100, while a successful $105 bet on Bisping would return a profit of $100.
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St. Pierre will surely look to take the fight to the ground, as he has done to so much success in the past. Using his long jab and takedowns, St. Pierre will look to neutralize the striking offence of the champion.
Michael Bisping, on the other hand, will look to pressure St. Pierre with his volume striking and very strong cardio. St. Pierre has always prided himself on his strong cardio, though his long break from the sport may put him at a disadvantage against Bisping over the course of a five round fight. Bisping has proven to be very hard to put away in recent years, and St. Pierre will likely be pushed to his limit in this one.
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Some people are angry about this fight, as Yoel Romero and Jacare Souza are both getting passed up for title shots once again.
This is the new era of the UFC under WME-IMG management, however, as big money fights are now the norm, and rankings seemingly don't matter.
There is no doubt that a Bisping/St. Pierre super-fight will likely do close to 1 million buys - in reality, this is probably the only fight that the UFC could put together at the moment that could do those numbers without the involvement of Conor McGregor.
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Are you ready for the return of Georges St. Pierre to the UFC? Do you think that he will beat Michael Bisping to become the new Middleweight champion?
