VIDEO | UFC Fighters Give Their Pick for Michael Bisping and Georges St-Pierre

Georges St-Pierre coming back to fight Michael Bisping is a huge fight. Rankings, St-Pierre’s hiatus, and Robert Whittaker’s interim belt aside, a fight like this conjures old superfight discussions of a bygone era. During St-Pierre’s welterweight prime, the Moby Dick of fights was a showdown between him and middleweight king Anderson Silva. We never were able to see that spectacle, but now we get the next best thing. It’s a fighters, fighter. That’s why it’s so interesting to hear UFC fighter’s picks on who they think will come out on top.

“Yeah, come on, come on, I gotta’ go with [Georges St-Pierre]. Look, I just wrestled with the man too. He’s big too. He’s bigger than I thought he was. He done got big over the years, boy. He’s big, he’s strong, and he’s just going to outwork [Michael Bisping]. He’s got the right mindset going into this. He’s preparing right. I mean yeah, Bisping will be able to scramble off the bottom a couple of times. Who knows, maybe Georges will get more tired now that he’s been out for so long, But, when you look at the skills, I’m saying that Georges blows him out of the water.” — Kevin Lee

Michael Bisping edged out Georges St-Pierre ever-so-slightly in the picks. Out of 16 fighters, seven picked Georges St-Pierre, while eight picked Bisping to retain his title. Two were undecided. The most in-depth analysis of all of the fighters asked was Stephen Thompson by far. He’s worked with the legend before and has gotten the co-sign from St-Pierre early in his career, but even he had trouble picking a clear cut winner for UFC 217’s middleweight title fight.

“Obviously, [Michael] Bisping has been the busier of the two. Of course, [Georges St-Pierre]’s been out for awhile, it’s been awhile since you’ve seen him out there but between the both of them he has been busier. He is a bigger opponent, but Georges St-Pierre is very crafty, very smart, very intelligent, very powerful 170 and he can walk around at a heavier weight. He was struggling to keep the weight down to 170. They’re very similar fighters. I think Georges has crisper striking than Bisping does. I think Bisping leaves himself open a little too much when it comes to striking, but he’s a grinder. He makes it an ugly fight and he’s very good at that. The last person to do that to Georges and made Georges look not so good was Johny Hendricks. He made it a very ugly fight, [St-Pierre] ended up winning but if Bisping goes out there and does that, I think he may have an edge. But I think Bisping’s also going to want to knock Georges out. This is 170 fighter going up to his division, he’s going to want to make a statement. But if he wants to stand and bang with Georges, Georges is a phenomenal striker and he’s able to put his takedowns tegother very well. I think Georges is going to win this one, man.” — Stephen Thompson. 

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 11/3/2017.