Though UFC welterweight champ Tyron Woodley is keen on a move to middleweight to battle new middleweight king Georges St-Pierre, UFC President Dana White assures St-Pierre’s next fight will be against interim middleweight champion Robert Whittaker.

“It’s going to be Whittaker,” White told the media in attendance at the UFC 217 post-fight conference(via MMAFighting) . “I don’t even know what’s going on with GSP. He was transported to the hospital, so he’s got to get stitches on his nose. If he doesn’t take Bisping down and keeps this fight standing, he comes out of that fight with almost no damage. Bisping did some serious work from his back and split his nose open and had him bleeding all over his face. He (St-Pierre) took some big shots from the top position and if he didn’t do that he probably would’ve come out unscratched. So yeah, he’s got to go to the hospital right now. We’ll see how he is and what the status is with him.”

White then heaped praise on St-Pierre, who looked as good as ever in his title-winning defeat of Michael Bisping, despite a layoff of some four years.

“Even [Muhammed] Ali didn’t look the same after a three-year layoff, you know,” White said. “He was still a great fighter, but he didn’t look the same as he did before the layoff and very few people have come back from long layoffs. Not only come back and win in their own division, but move up to 185 pounds and fight in that division, it’s tough to do.”

“Its great to have GSP back. He came after a four-year layoff and fought a great fight tonight. People think Bisping is easy, but show me one easy fight Bisping has been in where you just go in there and walk over Bisping, you don’t do it. And GSP looked real good tonight.”

Do you think Georges St-Pierre versus Robert Whittaker is the fight to make?

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