While a Georges St-Pierre return is marquee worthy in and of itself, imagine the blockbuster it would be if the former welterweight kingpin returned to challenge UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping or lightweight titleholder Conor McGregor.
After more than three years out of the Octagon, St-Pierre’s return is all but scheduled. As both he and UFC president Dana White recently confirmed, he is back, having inked a new deal with the promotion. Speculation points to a third-quarter scheduling for his first bout back in the Octagon, but no specifics have been agreed upon as to a date or opponent.
If it were all the same to him, St-Pierre’s coach, Firas Zahabi, would like nothing more than for his charge to square off with the aforementioned Bisping or McGregor.
“My ideal scenario, I don’t know if it’s still up for grabs, but I was really happy when there was a buzzing of Bisping or McGregor,” Zahabi said on a recent edition of The MMA Hour. “I thought those two would be two epic fights.
“Of course, Tyron Woodley, he’s the (welterweight) champion, but he has his fight with ‘Wonderboy’ (Stephen Thompson). 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 is thinking about right now because of the current landscape.”
Bisping has already said that he’d welcome a fight with St-Pierre, being blatantly honest that he wants the “big money” tag that would accompany such a fight, but he is currently sidelined with a knee injury.
McGregor, meanwhile, has been focused on trying to force everyone’s hand into a boxing match with retired champion Floyd Mayweather.
That didn’t stop Zahabi from zeroing in on either man for St-Pierre’s welcome back party.
“There is always the 185-pound belt. And of course, McGregor is such a mega-star that if you put those two on a main event, I don’t think that anybody in the world wouldn’t watch that. I think that even non-MMA fans would watch that.”
It may appear that Zahabi was focused on a title fight, any title fight within range, but he insisted that wasn’t the case. He doesn’t believe that titles are the driving factor for St-Pierre.
“I’m not so worried about titles. I think he’s done that. It would be great if it’s a title, but it comes down to a good name that he likes and it’s exciting.”
