Dana White Wants Georges St-Pierre at Welterweight But Not Sure He’ll Return to the UFC
Georges St-Pierre remained at odds with the UFC over his potential return to action for several years and now it appears they are back at a stalemate once again.
The former welterweight champion finally negotiated his first fight back in nearly four years when he fought Michael Bisping for the middleweight title at UFC 217 last November.
After winning the fight, St-Pierre decided to relinquish the title due to health issues but now he seems ready to compete again. The only problem is St-Pierre has said the only fights that interest him are the kind of matchups that will add to his legacy, which is why he mentioned interest in facing the winner of the upcoming lightweight title fight between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor.
That fight would not only give St-Pierre a chance to win a third world title but it would obviously be one of the most lucrative bouts he could possibly have out of any potential opponent in the UFC.
“I’m not interested in that fight. He knows that and I’ve told him many times,” UFC president Dana White told the BBC when asked about St-Pierre landing that fight. “He was the 170-pound champion, he moved up to 185 pounds to take on Michael Bisping and put in his agreement that he would absolutely defend the title at 185 and then just dumped the title. I’m not interested.
“Georges St-Pierre is looking for one off fights where he can make a lot of money, which it’s smart, that’s what he should do but we’re not interested in that.”
St-Pierre said when he was first asked about possibly facing Nurmagomedov or McGregor that he felt like the UFC wouldn’t give him that fight because of the situation surrounding his last championship win against Bisping.
St-Pierre added that he might take certain non-title fights but it would have to make sense in terms of what it does for his legacy because otherwise he’s not interested.
White added that he would like to see St-Pierre back at welterweight where he was a nine-time defending champion.
That said, White has returned to the same statement he used about St-Pierre during those four years he was sitting on the sidelines outside the sport.
“I’m interested in Georges St-Pierre coming back at 170 [pounds]. Not at 155 pounds,” White said.
“I don’t know. He’s not too excited about fighting or defending his title or anything like that. I don’t know if he’ll ever fight again.”