Madison Square Garden plays host to the return of former welterweight king Georges St. Pierre, as he ends his near four-year hiatus from the sport to challenge middleweight champion Michael Bisping.
The Canadian wrestling supremo has won twelve straight bouts in the UFC, dating back over ten and a half years since his loss to Matt Serra, labelled as one of the biggest upsets of all time.
His 19 octagon wins are better only by the man who will stand opposite GSP in the octagon in New York. The key question is yet to be answered… will we see the same Georges St. Pierre after such a gap in competition?
It will be interesting to see if his game has evolved as the sport has changed significantly. The level of competition has increased and out of the names that he has defeated, only Carlos Condit remains in the upper rankings of the welterweight division.
How does GSP cope with the extra weight? Fifteen pounds is a big difference, as was demonstrated when Conor McGregor took on Nate Diaz. The time that the Canadian has taken would suggest he is comfortable carrying that extra weight but with Bisping’s relentless pace, it is a different scenario than in sparring!
St. Pierre has clearly been keen to improve his striking, continuing to work with legendary boxing trainer Freddie Roach, who will corner the former welterweight champion at Madison Square Garden.
His return is well-timed for the UFC’s owners, WME-IMG who have lacked the star quality provided by Conor McGregor, Jon Jones and Ronda Rousey, with the promotion’s three biggest stars not looking like they will fight any time soon.
GSP has regularly delivered over 500,000 pay-per-view buys which only UFC 214 with Cormier facing Jones has surpassed that mark in 2017. It could be likely that the combination of his return, Garbrandt vs. Dillashaw and Jedrzejczyk vs. Namajunas that UFC 217 could come close to a million buys.
On paper, it would suggest that Michael Bisping’s primary objective would be to stop the Canadian’s takedown attempts. With GSP’s wrestling and jiu-jitsu a side, Bisping has the advantage on the feet with his superior striking.
A win would see St. Pierre become only the fourth fighter in UFC history to win titles in two different weight divisions after BJ Penn, Randy Couture and Conor McGregor. The Canadian winning the belt would potentially all but end Bisping’s career and set up a title unification with interim champion Robert Whittaker.
A loss for the returning legend would send him back into retirement and send Bisping into the final few fights of his career with the middleweight belt in hand. It makes for an interesting bout which is highly fitting of a main-event slot at the legendary Madison Square Garden!
