GSP's coach reveals the real reason he pursued Michael Bisping fight
GETTY Georges St-Pierre, former UFC middleweight champion
The future UFC Hall of Famer made his long-awaited return to the Octagon, which had been nearly four years in the making, last November in the main event of UFC 217. St-Pierre’s comeback fight saw him step up in weight and challenge Michael Bisping for the middleweight title. The Canadian’s pursuit of his third UFC title was a successful one as he ended Bisping’s reign at the summit of the 185lbs division with a third-round rear-naked choke.
When it was announced that St-Pierre had signed a new deal with the UFC, many automatically assumed he would return to the welterweight division to try and reclaim the 170lbs title, which he vacated in December 2013. However, he made it crystal clear that he wanted his second stint in the UFC to see him do something he had never done before, grace the middleweight division. Many in the mixed martial arts world, most notably welterweight champion Tyron Woodley, believed St-Pierre’s decision to pursue a fight with Bisping was based on his belief that the Brit was easy pickings.
This was a four-year project John Danaher on Georges St-Pierre's decision to move up to the middleweight division
According to St-Pierre’s Brazilian jiu-jitsu coach John Danaher, that wasn’t the case. “As he came back, there was a question of who is going to be his opponent,” Danaher said during an appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience Podcast. “And the next thing I said was, ‘Well, you never went up a weight division. Go up to 85.” “No, because that decision was made before Bisping was the champion,” Danaher added when asked by Rogan is ‘GSP’s’ pursuit of middleweight gold was at all motivated by Bisping being the division’s ruler.
GETTY Georges St-Pierre took on Michael Bisping in his long-awaited UFC comeback fight
GETTY Georges St-Pierre vacated the middleweight title 33 days after beating Michael Bisping