Georges St-Pierre discloses real reason for not being able to fight till late this year

Many are still speculating on who and when Georges St-Pierre will be fighting in his return to the Octagon after his lenghty hiatus.

With the targeted bout against UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping now scrapped, UFC President Dana White said that “Rush” will fight whoever has the UFC welterweight title when he is ready. St-Pierre said that he had prior obligations to fulfill, which delayed him from being able to fight till after October.

On Friday, the former UFC welterweight champ disclosed some new information on why he is unable to fight till late this year.

“Trust me, I’m not the kind of guy who thinks, ‘Hey, I’m going to make everybody wait for me,” said St-Pierre at the C2 Montréal conference via Ariel Helwani for MMA Fighting. “I don’t want to fight during the summer, I want to take my time …’

“That’s not the reason. If it were up to me, I would come back. The reason is I had a problem with my eye. I had an injury.”

“My vision has not been back yet. It will be back. It’s something very minor. The doctor insisted for me that I don’t spar until September.”

St-Pierre added that the UFC knew of his injury and timeline but were pressuring him to accept the fight at a date he would not be ready for.

“But UFC knew. Everyone knew. The people concerned knew that that was the case, but they still tried to put pressure on me to fight in July. That’s the reason why I’m coming out public today about the reason why I’m not fighting this summer.”

With Bisping also recently coming out saying he was injured and unable to fight, Yoel Romero and Robert Whittaker will be fighting for the UFC interim middleweight title at UFC 213 in July, which could leave the door open for a Bisping and St-Pierre match.

“I always said that if I was coming back to fight, it needed to be a fight that excites me. I wanted to fight Michael Bisping because I wanted to fight someone that could elevate me. Michael Bisping is the champion now and I think that he could elevate me as much as I could elevate him. I’m taking a huge risk coming back. I’m putting my legacy on the line.”

Do you think we will still see Michael Bisping and Georges St-Pierre fight later this year? Let’s get your thoughts on the middleweight title picture in the comment section.

on 5/26/2017.