After Speaking with Dana White, Georges St. Pierre Optimistic Bisping Fight Will Eventually Happen

Georges St. Pierre isn’t giving up on the Michael Bisping fight just yet.

The Las Vegas-based promotion initially announced that Bisping would defend his middleweight crown against St. Pierre in March and targeted UFC 213 on July 8 for that blockbuster bout. However, St. Pierre nixed that idea when he said he would be ready to face “The Count” any time after October. At that point, UFC President Dana White said the fight was off and that Bisping would make his next defense against Yoel Romero.

“Rush” later revealed that an eye surgery was the cause of the delay. Meanwhile, Bisping has been slow to recover from a knee surgery undergone earlier this year, ruling him out of a summer title defense against Romero. As a result, the promotion has booked an interim 185-pound title bout between Romero and Robert Whittaker at UFC 213.

White seems to have moved on from the Bisping-St. Pierre matchup and has said that GSP will now fight for the welterweight strap when he is ready to return, while Bisping will face the Romero-Whittaker winner.

However, after recently speaking with the UFC boss, St. Pierre is confident he will get his desired showdown with the outspoken Englishman. In his mind, it remains the ideal matchup for his first UFC bout in approximately four years.

“It was changing, but I talked to Dana a few days ago,” St-Pierre told TSN.ca. “I tried to convince him that it was a good thing, that if I come back it needs to be a situation where I put a lot of the risk, but I need to have something I can gain from it.

“Big risk, big reward. Fighting Michael Bisping, that’s what it gives me. He’s the one that has the most wins in UFC history; he beat my record by one. But if I beat him I know Michael will retire. I think it’s a perfect fight.… I talked to Dana and at the end of the conversation he said we’ll figure it out. We’ll see what happens. So hopefully it will happen.”

St. Pierre also acknowledged that having the much of the saga play out in the media might not be the ideal situation for either party. According to the ex-welterweight champion, one-on-one conversations with White are much more productive, which gives him optimism regarding a future date with Bisping.

“I’m positive I think [the fight] will happen,” St. Pierre said. “The problem that I have with Dana is my mistake, we talk to reporters. There’s declaration and stuff. I think it’s good to talk to each other and see where our minds are. And work together for the benefits of UFC, of me, for the fans, to make everybody happy.”

In an ideal world, St. Pierre would prefer to face Bisping when the UFC makes its rumored return to Madison Square Garden in New York this November.

“It would be great. A historical moment,” he said. “I want to make it as big as possible….It would be the fight that everybody would want to see.”