UFC 217 saw the return of Georges St-Pierre and proved why he is considered one of the greatest fighters in the history of mixed martial arts.
Just shy of four years from the last time competing in the Octagon, St-Pierre stepped up in weight and took the middleweight belt from Michael Bisping by choking him unconscious in the third round of their title fight.
UFC commentator Joe Rogan and former UFC fighter Brendan Schaub chatted on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast about St-Pierre’s performance and what could be next for the new two-weight UFC world champion.
“Maybe one of the most impressive things, or confusing, or unexpected was how f**king good GSP looked,” said Rogan. “The dude was gone for four years, comes back and immediately I see him moving around and popping the jab and I’m like, ‘Jesus Christ. He looks like GSP.’”
“Yeah, yeah,” replied Schaub. “See I wasn’t, and everyone is like, ‘Here’s Schaub the hater.’ I wasn’t that in love with GSP’s performance.”
Rogan questioned, “You weren’t?”
“I thought he looked good,” said Schaub. “I thought he looked heavy. I didn’t think he looked as, you know obviously he put on some pounds. He was thick, thick, like three musketeers thick. I thought he put on some pounds and his cardio wasn’t that great. Cardio for days before.”
“Yeah, he definitely was suffering a little bit because of that and also it has to be a big factor, four years off,” said Rogan. “Just the nerves and all that jazz. And the struggle to hold Bisping down. Bisping is f**king hard and you know honestly, taking him down was one of the worst things that could have happened. He got cut the f**k up.”
Rogan and Schaub then go on to talk about what the future may hold for St-Pierre and interestingly, both Rogan and Schaub do not think St-Pierre will fight again at middleweight. Both believe that GSP will go back down to 170 pounds and talked about a potential fight with Tyron Woodley and also Conor McGregor.
What did you think of Georges St-Pierre’s performance against Michael Bisping? What do you think will be GSP’s next move? Let’s chat about the potential options for the new UFC middleweight champion in the comment section!
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 11/7/2017.