Thursday eventing former UFC champion Georges St-Pierre shocked the world by vacating his UFC middleweight title. Now, after making some media rounds, it’s been made clear that GSP has used Conor McGregor’s situation of ‘clogging up the division’, as reason to talk down about the UFC lightweight champion.
Many are saying that this is GSP’s ploy and first shots fired at the UFC mega-star in a hope to provoking a fight.
In a prepared statement, GSP stated, “My fight at UFC 217 was one of the greatest nights of my life but I now need to take some time to focus on my health. Out of respect to the athletes and the sport, I don’t want to hold up the division. I will be giving up my belt and once I’m healthy I look forward to working with the UFC to determine what’s next in my career.”
This comes on the heels of the UFC finalizing a world-title fight between Luke Rockhold and Robert Whittaker staged for the UFC 221 main event in February.
Rockhold, the former division champion will take on current interim champion Robert Whittaker in the UFC 221 main event.
The UFC’s original plan was to place Georges St-Pierre vs. Robert Whittaker on the card, however GSP’s recent statement, where he said his return to 185 is unlikely, has pressed the issue and forced a replacement in the form of Luke Rockhold.
Now, after speaking to more Canadian media, GSP throws some subtle jabs at McGregor, as explained by Robin Black, who has quoted GSP with stating, “I don’t want to call up the division for killers like Whittaker and young guys like Kelvin Gastelum. I don’t want to be one of these guys. He politely said to me, I don’t want to be like McGregor. I want to get out of the way and let these guys fight for the belt.”
Here’s Black’s full recounting of GSP’s words on McGregor:
