UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping may have inadvertently confirmed the date for his showdown with Georges St-Pierre
Bisping, who had previously voiced his disapproval of Dana White’s decision to promise Tyron Woodley the bout with St-Pierre, is a much happier man.
Woodley was judged by White to have ‘fought himself out of a shot’ with the returning welterweight legend following a timid title fight with Demian Maia at UFC 214, much to the pleasure of the Brit.
The outspoken king of the 185-pound division discussed a conversation he had with White, giving away the date for the bout (although MMAFighting’s Ariel Helwani had previously reported that Nov. 4 was the expected date):
“To be honest, Dana said at the press conference last week that ‘The Bisping-GSP ship had sailed,’” Bisping said on his ‘Believe You Me’ podcast this week. “When he said that I was like oh right fair enough. He said the winner of Woodley vs. Maia gets GSP and I was like oh right, whatever, it would’ve been nice and a bigger payday and all that stuff, but I was just mentally drained with it all(Transcription via MMAUno).
“I was like f*ck it whatever, I’d already agreed to fight Robert Whittaker or Yoel Romero, whichever one of those guys won I’d agreed to fight so for me, I’d mentally moved on as well. I honestly had. Of course, I was still hoping for it, but I’d given up campaigning for several reasons, one, because it looked like it wasn’t happening because every time I spoke to Dana he just shot it down.
“So, I had given up on that fight.”
Bisping would not have to wait for long to hear that Woodley’s performance had meant the ball was back in his court and a date of Nov. 4 with GSP was set for Madison Square Garden
“So we are doing the [UFC 214] post-fight show afterwards, the Fox post-fight show, we are talking about the fights, yada, yada, ya. We finish and the first thing I do is take off my microphone and all that stuff. And then they are talking in the earpieces and Kenny Florian was still connected. And then Kenny is like, ‘Mike, wait there, wait there.’ And the control room are talking to him, and he said, ‘Apparently Dana just said that you get the next fight with GSP’. I’m like, ‘What? No way.’
“So, I start looking at Twitter as I’m walking to get changed out of my suit and Twitter is like going crazy and everyone is retweeting Dana saying at the press conference and I’m like what the f*ck. Then boom, I get a text from Dana saying call me. I’m like, woah f*ck, here we go. So I call him, but there’s no answer, so I’m thinking you know he’s probably still doing his interviews and what not.
“So I drive home and yeah, Dana calls, there you go, November 4th, Madison Square Garden, Michael Bisping vs ‘GSP.”‘
