Michael Bisping’s Believe You Me podcast has provided some of the best sound bytes in recent years. After winning the UFC middleweight championship it got even more entertaining and you can reference some of the Weidman comments if you don’t believe us. On Monday he said that Georges St-Pierre doesn’t really have to defend the championship if he defeats him at UFC 217 in New York.
Georges is still in the position of power, much as I don’t like to admit that. Listen, I’m fighting GSP and I have a fan base and people like to watch me fight or people like to see me get knocked out. Win or lose, people do tune in. But GSP is a big name and he brings the huge Canadian market with him and that’s what the UFC are after. They want all those Canadians to start buying the pay-per-views again. From what I’m hearing, pay-per-view sales in Canada haven’t been doing too well lately so they want GSP to come back and they want all those people, all those lumberjacks to start buying the Pay-Per-Views again.
If, God forbid, he beats me, he has it in the contract that he has to fight Robert Whittaker. But he can retire. He can retire if he wants. They cannot force you to fight. So let’s say he was to say, ‘I retire’ and then say, ‘Hey, listen, I’ll come out of retirement to fight at 170. UFC, do you want to sell all those pay-per-views again, yes or no? It’s up to you. So really one would assume that he can really do what he wants. They can’t force him to fight.
He’s in the position of power, really. Of course Dana’s the promoter, the UFC are the promoters but we’re the fighters and GSP has that Canadian market that buys pay-per-views. Unfortunately for me, I’ve got a fantastic following in the U.K.. I have a great following and God bless you all, but the way it’s structured in the U.K. we get the UFC for free. There’s no pay-per-view so there’s limited – it’s a big attraction to the UFC to have the U.K. market but to have the Canadian market that has a history of buying pay-per-views, you pay for the UFC in Canada so that’s more beneficial to the UFC.