TUESDAY NEWS DIGEST 2/21: GSP’s coach pinpoints two specific opponents he’d like to see face GSP on his return (w/Hiscoe’s Analysis)

By Mike Hiscoe, MMATorch contributor

George St. Piette (photo by Wade Keller © MMATorch)

According to Georges St. Pierre’s coach, GSP’s return to fighting will be anywhere but the division he dominated for so many years. Speaking to Ariel Helwani on “The MMA Hour” yesterday, Firas Zahabi said that he would like to see St. Pierre fight either Michael Bisping or Conor McGregor when he returns this year.

“I thought those two would be two epic fights,” he said of potential fights with McGregor or Bisping. “One, he would go a little lower [in weight]; one, he would go a little higher. But those are really, really intriguing fights.”

One notable takeaway from that comment is Zahabi confirming that GSP would be willing to move down to lightweight to fight McGregor. A career welterweight, GSP had talked in the last year of cutting to 155 as a possibility but most recent talk has been of a fight at 185. A McGregor-St-Pierre fight could easily be made as a non-title fight at 170 pounds, but it looks like GSP is willing to make the cut to have a shot at another championship, even if it’s not at his usual home at welterweight.

“Of course, Tyron Woodley, he’s the [welterweight] champion and et cetera, but he has his fight with ‘Wonderboy’ [Thompson],” he said. “And if ‘Wonderboy’ wins, then they’ll have a trilogy. And of course we don’t want to fight with ‘Wonderboy,’ we go way back together. So I think the Welterweight Title is not really something he (St-Pierre) is thinking about right now because of the current landscape, but there is always the 185-pound belt.”

With a fight for the UFC Welterweight Championship seemingly out of the conversation, it may come down to a matter of timing whether GSP fights at 155 or 185 when he returns.

Hiscoe’s Analysis: As much as I like the idea of a GSP-Stephen Thompson fight, I can understand that he wouldn’t want to fight someone he has trained with in the past. If the two best options are either fighting Conor McGregor or Michael Bisping, I would definitely make the McGregor fight. The only roadblock to that happening is whatever is happening right now between McGregor and Floyd Mayweather. I don’t like GSP vs. Bisping because then, if GSP wins, you have the potential of GSP fighting some of these scary and much larger middleweights such as Yoel Romero or Jacare Souza; that just doesn’t sound like a good idea at this point in GSP’s career. A fight with McGregor either at 155 or 170 is the best option for GSP from both a business and fighting perspective.

TUESDAY NOTEBOOK ITEMS…

-Legendary boxing trainer Freddie Roach told “The MMA Hour” that McGregor vs. Mayweather “looks like it’s going to happen.”

-Ed Herman has been forced to pull out of his UFC 209 fight with Igor Pokrajac due to injury. (SOURCE)

-Ian McCall detailed to Joe Rogan on his podcast what happened to take him out of his fight scheduled for UFC 208. He said he was doing well with his weight cut so he ate and drank a bit but was unable to keep things down even after he had made the weight.

-Desmond Green vs. Josh Emmett has been signed for UFC 210 on April 10 from Buffalo.

NOW CHECK OUT YESTERDAY’S UPDATE: MONDAY NEWS DIGEST 2/20: Derrick Lewis shows his star power with bombastic post-fight interview (w/Hiscoe’s Analysis)


(MMATorch’s Daily News Digest features the top story of the day with added analysis, plus smaller tidbits in the News Notes section. Mike Hiscoe, who writes the News Digest Sundays through Thursdays, has a background in film criticism and previously wrote for the DVD Town and Movie Metropolis websites. His passion for Mixed Martial Arts goes back to 2005, but it was in the promotion for UFC 60: Hughes vs. Gracie that he really got hooked.”This is my house, I build it,” is still among the all-time great UFC promos. You can follow Mike on social media under the tag @mikehiscoe. He now provides his experienced writing and perspective on live MMA events for MMATorch.)

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