Early in 2017, UFC President Dana White revealed that former UFC welterweight kingpin Georges St-Pierre would be returning to the Octagon for a highly anticipated showdown with middleweight champion Michael Bisping. While no date was given for the bout, the pair had a press conference in early 2017 to hype the fight.

Ultimately, Bisping issued an ultimatum to St-Pierre, stating that if the former champ wasn’t ready to fight by July, he would take the former welterweight champ’s title fight, and give it to Yoel Romero. This month, St-Pierre released a video in which he told Bisping he was ready to fight any time after July.

Subsequently, UFC President Dana White called off the fight, informing the MMA community that Yoel Romero will be getting the next title fight, not St-Pierre.

Georges St-Pierre spoke to MMAFighting to respond to White, saying:

“I want to fight Bisping and I think Bisping wants to fight me,” he said. “I just learned the news. I don’t know what to say. It might be an emotional response by Dana or maybe it’s to put pressure on me.”

“In this sport, among fighters, when one fighter gets an opportunity, it always leaves more fighters unhappy than happy.

“It’s the nature of a one-man sport. I’ve been there.”

St-Pierre of course is referring to comments made by his fellow middleweights regarding their frustration with the UFC booking a Bisping vs. St-Pierre fight, and how the scrap holds up the division.

Now, it will be interesting to see how the standoff between the UFC and Anderson Silva will play out given that both parties are at a standstill. With St-Pierre no longer set to fight for the title however, Silva’s case for an interim title fight may have just taken a significant blow.

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 5/11/2017.