On this day in 2017, Georges St-Pierre won the UFC Middleweight title by choking out Michael Bisping
It has been five years since UFC Hall of Famer Georges St-Pierre and then-UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping fought at UFC 217 on November 4, 2017, at the world-famous Madison Square Garden.
St-Pierre etched his name in the history books when he choked out Bisping via third-round submission to become the new middleweight champion.
5 years ago today…
It was magic at Madison Square Garden. https://t.co/tut6stKXkh
‘Rush’ joined the list of fighters to win a UFC championship in two different weight divisions. While speaking with Joe Rogan post-fight, St-Pierre was thrilled with the result and described the return and title win as a dream come true:
“It’s my dream come true guys, thank you for the support. Everybody here that came here to support me and Michael, thank you. We make a living because of you. Thanks guys so much, my dream comes true."
The longtime UFC welterweight champion explained the reasoning behind his move up to 185lbs for the first time in his career after a lengthy layoff:
“Well, this is not really my real weight. I did it for the challenge and it was a time in my career, I was too busy that the challenger were one after the other and I was too small to go up. I was even for welterweight. Now, I’m still welterweight size but I decide to take a shot because I put on some muscle mass. There is a point that it’s too much, but now I’m at the point that it is okay. I don’t want to give it away for Michael but I study a lot of Michael’s tape. I knew he had a lot of problem with the shot coming to his right, so our plan was to fake him on his left side to attract his attention and strike him on his right. That’s what we did most of the fight.”
Check out the full post-fight interview below:
UFC 217 was a success for the promotion as the pay-per-view generated 850,000 buys. Not only is the event remembered for being GSP’s return fight, but it also ended up being the final fight of his career.
Will we see Georges St-Pierre return to combat sports in some capacity?
"I can do whatever I want." 😊
Georges St-Pierre (@GeorgesStPierre) says he's a free agent.
More: bit.ly/3TMqOTX https://t.co/Fz7dqvEd6b
Georges St-Pierre recently revealed that he is no longer under contract with the UFC and hasn’t completely ruled out a return to competition.
As seen when he returned to the UFC in 2017, GSP gets motivated when he challenges himself. He most likely wouldn't be motivated to fight an up-and-coming UFC welterweight, but he could be motivated to compete in a boxing match.
Time will tell if the former two-division UFC champion ever gets the itch to return to competition, but one thing that's for certain is that it will definitely have to be a lucrative offer.