UFC president Dana White doesn’t seem to have much hope that Georges St-Pierre will ever return to fight again after vacating his middleweight title just recently.
St-Pierre came back to fighting after almost four years away and he promptly defeated Michael Bisping to win the UFC middleweight title in November. The expectation after the fight was that St-Pierre would then unify the title with interim champion Robert Whittaker in 2018.
Just a month later, St-Pierre vacated the belt after coming down with a bout of colitis — a chronic, inflammatory bowel disease — that he believes may have been caused by packing on so much weight to compete at 185 pounds. Since that time, St-Pierre has given no clear indication about his future with the UFC and that seems to make White believe that the former two-division champion may be done…again.
“There is no status. I knew what he was doing. That’s why I put [a mandatory title defense] into his contract. We both knew what was going on,” White said about St-Pierre’s future when speaking to ESPN on Wednesday.
“I don’t know, man. I don’t think the guy wants to fight. I think he jumped in, grabbed some cash and went back to Canada.”
St-Pierre definitely earned a hefty payday after signing a new four-fight contract and then cashing in after UFC 217 ended up one of the biggest selling cards of the year on pay-per-view.
If St-Pierre does decide to come back, his coaches have recently suggested that a fight against UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor might make sense considering that would undoubtedly be one of the most lucrative events of all time.
McGregor is by far the biggest draw in the history of the sport while St-Pierre has routinely pulled in gaudy numbers on pay-per-view and at the box office every time he fights. Putting those two combustible elements in the same fight could result in record breaking numbers but White quickly pumped the brakes that that matchup ever happening.
According to White, if St-Pierre ever decides to fight again, he will get matched up against a champion but it won’t be his dream bout against McGregor.
“He ain’t fighting Conor McGregor,” White said. “If he wants to come back, Tyron Woodley or Robert Whittaker is waiting for him.
“They’re both waiting, if Georges wants to come back.”
