Michael Bisping: Dana White told me ‘GSP does not want to fight’

For a time, it looked as though UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping would next defend his title against former welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre. Yet when St-Pierre revealed he wouldn’t be able to fight until the fall, and Bisping announced that he was recovering from knee surgery, this much-discussed fight was pushed to the back burner.

Since then, UFC President Dana White has suggested that, if St-Pierre does return, it will not be to the middleweight division as originally planned, but instead to the welterweight division while he once ruled.

On the latest episode of his podcast Believe You Me, Bisping weighed in on the current situation with St-Pierre:

“Right now, I’m still looking at GSP,” he said (h/t Fox Sports). “I had a conversation with Dana White last week on the phone, he made me an offer — not for a fight — I will not reveal on here what it was but he made me an offer for something. I said what about GSP? He said ‘GSP does not want to fight.’

“I said well that’s not what I’m hearing. I said I’m hearing he wants to fight me, his coach told me that he wants to fight me. He said ‘if I could make the GSP fight happen, I’ll make it happen but he doesn’t want to fight you, I’m telling you.’

“So I don’t know what the f—k is going on out there.”

Bisping then implored St-Pierre to hold up his end of the bargain and make this initially planned fight happen:

“GSP, if you’re listening to this, make the call. I’m down. We did the press conference. I’m in 100 percent. Failing that, I will have to fight the number one contender. That is my duty as the champion but we’ve had the press conference for me versus GSP.

“For me, I’m still invested in that fight and I want to be part of a big fight and then I’ll take on the number one contender. But if we don’t make this fight soon, I’m going to be forced to move on because that’s what I have to do, that’s my duty.”

Do you still want to see Michael Bisping and Georges St-Pierre fight?

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 6/21/2017.