There have been some debates on how Georges St-Pierre performed in his return to the Octagon after being away from competition for nearly four years.
Nonetheless, the former UFC welterweight kingpin secured a dramatic finish, choking Michael Bisping unconscious to become the new UFC middleweight champion and fourth fighter in history to become a two-division UFC champ.
However, Michael Bisping was no walk in the park for St-Pierre. The dominant MMA wrestler had a hard time holding “The Count” down when he got him to the ground. GSP even experienced a lot of damage from the top with Bisping attacking with elbows from the bottom, cutting his face open with blood pouring down his face in the third round.
Speaking with the media on a conference call on Thursday, “Rush” revealed that he even experienced a neck injury inflicted by Bisping during the first round of the fight. St-Pierre said Bisping landed an elbow from the bottom that ended up hitting the back of his head.
“It looked very insignificant when it happened,” St-Pierre said (transcribed by Steven Marrocco for MMA Junkie). “It wasn’t the strength of the hit. It was more the precision of it. It’s not his fault. We’re not allowed to hit there, but it was just in the heat of the fight, and it’s normal.
“My neck was so inflamed, when I was on the floor, I had a hard time posturing up because it was hurting very bad. It felt like I couldn’t contract my head to posture up. After the fight when I cooled down, it was terrible. It was like my neck couldn’t move. Now it’s still sore, but it got a lot better. I got treatment on it, so I’ll be back 100 percent.”
In regards to being back in the Octagon, St-Pierre said he is taking a vacation to take his mind off fighting and will leave fight talk and negotiations up to his agent and Dana White.
“We’ll see what I want to do and where my head is,” he said. “I have no intention of holding onto the belt and freezing the division. That’s not what I want to do. Robert Whittaker is in my contract. If I want to fight again, it has to be against Robert Whittaker at 185 (pounds). That’s in my contract. I cannot, for example, go fight (welterweight champ) Tyron Woodley or go fight another guy.”
While it sure sounds like St-Pierre only has one option as an opponent, the only other option that seems feasible would be retiring and relinquishing the title. GSP stated that he does not know what decision he will make yet but will release the news “in the next few weeks.”
What do you think is the right move for Georges St-Pierre? Let’s have this discussion in the comment section.
This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 11/9/2017.