Several weeks ago, it appeared as though UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping could very well find himself stepping into the Octagon in December at UFC 206 to fight former UFC welterweight kingpin Georges St-Pierre.
While the fight appeared to be all but official, St-Pierre released a message to Bisping via social media in which he informed ‘The Count’ that while he hoped to return to the Octagon at the event, negotiations with the UFC didn’t go well, and he won’t be able to fight at the highly anticipated Toronto event. Bisping, understandably bummed out over the news, released a statement in which he informed fans that he has his heart set on fighting at UFC 206, and would be willing to fight anyone, preferably Nick Diaz.
This week, former UFC middleweight champion Luke Rockhold withdrew from his scheduled ‘UFC Fight Night: Australia’ scrap with Jacare Souza. While many expected Bisping, who is coming off a UFC 204 win over Dan Henderson last month, to now fight Souza at UFC 206 given that he was so set on fighting at the event, however according to the champ, that isn’t the case.
He spoke on UFC Tonight about the situation:
“As you all know, I fought Dan Henderson very recently. I’ve got a busted orbital, I’m getting injections in my knee. Now I know what everyone at home is going to say: ‘Didn’t you call out GSP a couple weeks ago?’ Yes, I did, but really, think about this, that was a massive payday, roughly $3-4 million I would have earned from that fight. Against Jacare, I’m going to get around about a quarter. I’m assuming they’re saying that I’m ducking Jacare. I’ve never ducked anybody in my life. Next week, Yoel (Romero) and (Chris) Weidman are fighting. Whoever wins, either that guy, or Jacare, will be my next fight, make no mistake. But I’m not doing it in a few weeks.”
Bisping has had a busy 2016, kicking the year off by defeating MMA legend Anderson Silva in London via unanimous decision. Bisping followed up the win, which made it 3-straight for him, by defeating Luke Rockhold for the middleweight championship on just 2 weeks notice. Following his win over Rockhold, Bisping defeated Dan Henderson via unanimous decision at UFC 204 in Manchester, England.