Coach Freddie Roach shares his hopes for Georges St-Pierre’s next fight

Last weekend, in the main event of the absolutely stacked UFC 217, former UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre made a return to the Octagon after some four years away. While his heyday occurred at welterweight, however, this comeback fight occurred at middleweight, where he battled divisional kingpin Michael Bisping for gold.

St-Pierre was in vintage form, as he blasted Bisping on the feet and landed expertly timed takedowns en route to a third-round technical submission.

With this massive fight in the rear-view, St-Pierre seems to have plenty of interesting options ahead, from interim champion Robert Whittaker, to fellow GOAT contender Anderson Silva, to welterweight champ Tyron Woodley, to lightweight champ Conor McGregor. In the opinion of renowned boxing coach Freddie Roach, who has worked with St-Pierre extensively throughout his career, the most compelling option would be a return to welterweight, or a fight with Conor McGregor (which would also probably occur at welterweight). Roach explained this preference on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour.

Freddie Roach said if it was up to him, GSP would go back to welterweight or fight Conor McGregor. #TheMMAHour

— Justin Golightly (@SecretMovesMMA) November 6, 2017

As we know, however, the plan for the new middleweight champ St-Pierre is indeed a fight with interim middleweight titleholder Robert Whittaker. Dana White assured this was the direction the promotion will go at the UFC 217 post fight press conference.

“It’s going to be Whittaker,” White said (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.”

Who would you like to see Georges St-Pierre fight next?

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 6/11/2017.