UFC middleweight champion Michael “The Count” Bisping was initially set to defend his title from now returning Georges St-Pierre. However, the fight is now in jeopardy, as St-Pierre has revealed that he will not be available to fight until later this year.
Now, UFC President Dana White is considering an interim title fight between contenders Robert Whittaker and Yoel Romero, as Bisping has revealed that a recent injury will keep him from fighting until later this year.
Michael Bisping gave his thoughts on the situation in a recent edition of his podcast Believe You Me. On the podcast, as transcribed by MMA Fighting, Bisping stated:
“I know they’re trying to move on from the GSP fight. From my understanding, it looks like the GSP fight isn’t happening. I’ve yet to have a discussion with them about this. From my understanding, Georges still wants to fight me and I still want to fight Georges. So this is what I want to know: I want to know what the problem is. If the UFC have moved on, they got tired of waiting, whatever. But to my understanding, the fight was never gonna really happen in July anyway. I heard that from some sources right at the start. They said, ‘we’re hoping for July 8th but it’s probably not gonna be that.’
“Now they’re saying they want to do a fight in July and my knee isn’t gonna be ready in July. [St-Pierre] wasn’t gonna be ready until October, November. So to me, that plays perfectly but I know the UFC wants me to fight and they’re saying if I can’t fight that they’re gonna do an interim title fight.” Bisping explained.
Speaking towards a possible interim title fight, Bisping said:
“I’m assuming that they’re probably gonna do an interim title fight but I’ve got to speak to Dana. . . Probably Whittaker vs. Yoel, if I were the matchmakers, that’s what I’d do. Whittaker, we all know this, he’s on an absolute tear. I’ve got nothing against Robert Whittaker. Fine young man, great fighter, fights hard, got a lot of respect for him. Can’t say the same about Yoel. Yoel is certainly not on my Christmas card list. We all know my thoughts on him. He’s a scumbag, he’s a cheat, and that’s that. So if they do fight I, hope Whittaker beats the brains out of him.”
