According to Georges St-Pierre, his recently revealed eye injury was nothing new, and the prospect of fighting Michael Bisping this summer was never an option for him.
During an appearance on “The MMA Hour” on Tuesday. GSP shared that the eye injury he disclosed recently was known by UFC, but he was asked by those close to him to keep it quiet.
“(UFC) knew that I had an eye injury, but we still did the press conference, and I felt very uncomfortable during this whole time,” St-Pierre said. “Everybody has advisors, and I was advised to not talk about it, not talk about my eye injury. As an athlete, you don’t want to talk about these things. If you know about it now, it’s because this whole thing became out of proportion, it turned into a very negative thing. As athletes, we all have injuries and don’t want to talk about this, because it gives you weaknesses, something that your opponent can exploit.”
St-Pierre also said that he was clear with UFC that he wouldn’t be ready to fight this summer, but the promotion went ahead with a hastily produced press conference before UFC 209 in March. “When the fight got announced with the press conference, we knew that we couldn’t fight in the summer. UFC knew as well that I couldn’t fight in the summer,” he said.
“Even my agent and I were not very excited about that (press conference). We were like, ‘It’s better if we wait a little bit,’ but they decided to do it. It was the first time, if you remember, that they announced a fight – I think it’s the first time in history they announced a fight without a date. That’s for that reason because they couldn’t put a date yet because we didn’t know. I didn’t know when I would be able to spar. I knew the fight would definitely not happen in the summer.”
Even though Dana White announced a few weeks back that the Bisping-GSP fight was off, with an Interim Middleweight Championship being created for July and with both Bisping and St-Pierre off until later this year with injuries, the table certainly appears to be set for the two to fight in the fall.
Hiscoe’s Analysis: Everything is pointing towards a Bisping vs. GSP fight in November, despite what Dana White is telling us. The timing will work out well – Yoel Romero and Robert Whittaker will fight in July, and then the winner can defend his Interim Championship around the same time as the Bisping-GSP fight, setting up a clash between the two winners. UFC and White have been quiet on the GSP front lately, and that may be for the best as fans seem to be growing tired of this fight months before it’s even supposed to happen.
WEDNESDAY NOTEBOOK ITEMS…
-Speaking of fights, people are growing sick of long before they ever happen, Dana White said today that he plans to offer a 50/50 split between Floyd Mayweather and UFC/Conor McGregor. “Floyd can think whatever, but the machine that the UFC has and Conor McGregor alone is a machine by himself. I think that 50-50 is pretty fair.” (SOURCE)
-Ronda Rousey has been cast in a relaunching of ABC’s “Battle of the Network Stars.” Vulture.com reports that Rousey will captain teams of celebrities in various athletic contests opposite Dallas Cowboy DeMarcus Ware.
-Former Strikeforce heavyweight Brett Rogers pleaded guilty to two charges of criminal sexual conduct and to interfering with someone’s privacy in a St. Paul, MN court Tuesday. Rogers accepted a plea deal so he will serve no further jail time. (SOURCE)
-Episodes two and three of UFC 212 Embedded are now available HERE and HERE.
FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENT ROUNDUP
-Chan-Mi Jeon steps in to fight J.J. Aldrich at UFC Fight Night Auckland on June 11 (June 10 in North America) after Nadia Kassem pulled out due to injury.
-Lucie Pudilova vs. Ji Yeon Kim at UFC Fight Night Singapore on June 17.
-Vitaly Bigdash vs. Aung La N Sang will headline the June 30 ONE Championship show from Yangon, Myanmar.
-Alan Jouban vs. Brian Camozzi at UFC 213 on July 8 from Las Vegas, Nev.
-James Mulheron replaces Mark Godbeer to fight Justin Willis at UFC Fight Night Glasgow on July 16.
-Lyman Good vs. Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos, Damian Grabowski vs. Christian Colombo, and Rafael Natal vs. Alessio Di Chirico at UFC on Fox on July 22 from Uniondale, N.Y.
-Volkan Oezdemir vs. Jimi Manuwa at UFC 214 on July 29 from Anaheim, Calif.
-Jose Quinonez vs. Diego Rivas at UFC Fight Night Mexico City on Aug. 5.
-Andrey Koreshkov vs. Chidi Njokuani and Brennan Ward vs. Fernando Gonzalez at Bellator 182 on Aug. 25 from Vernon, NY..
NOW CHECK OUT YESTERDAY’S UPDATE: TUESDAY NEWS DIGEST 5/30: Germaine de Randamie may be ready to abandon her title, doesn’t want to fight Cyborg (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.)
Leave a Reply