On November 4, in the main event of the stacked UFC 217, former UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre will return from a lengthy hiatus to battle Michael “The Count” Bisping for the UFC middleweight belt.

Though St-Pierre is widely considered one of the greatest fighters ever, he’ll have plenty of disadvantages when he steps into the cage with Bisping – namely being the smaller man in the cage, and being a fighter riding such a long layoff. That said, St-Pierre believes he’s got some advantages too, particularly in the grappling department. In fact, he believes Bisping is “terrified” of a prolonged grappling match on November 4.

St-Pierre shared this feeling on the latest edition of The MMA Hour:

“He’s playing always the same song. He’s terrified of me wrestling him. Terrified,” St-Pierre said (h/t Shaun Al-Shatti of MMAFighting.com). “In every interview he does, he’s begging me to stand and bang with him. In every interview. … I mean, if you don’t know the ground (game), you shouldn’t be in MMA. You should be in kickboxing.”

Needless to say, St-Pierre won’t be falling into Bisping’s trap and sticking to the standup. Instead, he plans to utilize every weapon in his extensive MMA arsenal.

“Fighting on the ground is part of the game, and he’s terrified,” St-Pierre said. “So he wants me to be like, ‘Oh, okay, I’m going to stand and bang with you.’

“I’m going to use all my tools,” he continued. “Not only one tool, but all of them. That’s a mind game that he’s trying to play.”

This bout will be Georges St-Pierre’s first since a razor close decision defeat of Johny Hendricks in November of 2013. It will Michael Bisping’s first since a similarly contentious decision win over Dan Henderson in October of 2016. Who do you think comes out on top?

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 10/24/2017.