Josh Hedges/Zuffa LLC/Getty Images Chad DundasMMA Lead WriterMarch 1, 2017
UFC President Dana White announced Wednesday that Georges St-Pierre's return to the Octagon will be a middleweight title fight against Michael Bispingand, boy, is that going to be an unpopular decision.
Of all the likely candidates for St-Pierre's returnincluding superfights against Anderson Silva or Conor McGregorBisping was unilaterally regarded as the least appealing.
In the wake of White's appearance on ESPN's SportsCenter to confirm this fight, early reviews have been mostly negative:
This unrest is nothing against the 185-pound champion himself but, rather, a compliment to the overall strength of the middleweight division. With top contenders like Yoel Romero and Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza already beating down Bisping's door, there was just no good reason to further stymie that division's already-slow-motion title picture.
That is, except for the two reasons that trump all else right now in the eyes of this fight company and these fighters: money and immortality.
Since winning the title with a surprise knockout of Luke Rockhold at UFC 199 in June 2016, Bisping has eschewed the UFC's official rankings in favor of trying to chase down lucrative matchups for himself. He's defended the title just once, against Dan Henderson at UFC 206 four months ago.
You can't blame Bisping for this approach. At 38 years old, he'd long been considered a nice cog in the middleweight machine but not championship material. Here he's got an unprecedented and unexpected chance to earn a nice bonus after 11 years and 27 fights' worth of service to the UFC.
And for GSP?
Well, what he gets in his return to the Octagon after a three-year absence is a potentially winnable championship fight, a nice payday and a chance at the history books.
If St-Pierre is able to return to action at nearly 36 years old and win another UFC title in a weight class above his natural division, there will simply be no argument against anointing him the greatest MMA fighter of all time.
He's already routinely mentioned on the short list of contenders for that honor alongside former middleweight champion Anderson Silva and former light heavyweight champ Jon Jones. Defeating Bisping would definitively put GSP over the top in that three-horse raceat least for the time being.
Silva's claim to the throne has taken a big hit in recent years.
Back-to-back losses to Chris Weidman at UFC 162 and 168 signaled the end of his career as a truly elite middleweight, but had Silva walked away then, he might still have been able to lay credible claim to greatest-of-all-time status.
Unfortunately, he soldiered on and has gone just 1-4-1 dating back to the middle of 2013 (that record includes the Weidman losses). His only official win in that span came three weeks ago, in a controversial unanimous decision against middling contender Derek Brunson.
Perhaps most damaging, Silva's win over Nick Diaz at UFC 183 was overturned after he tested positive for two banned substances. It's tough to take any case for GOAT seriously from a guy who has tested dirty for performance enhancers.
Jones, meanwhile, is the most gifted athlete and strategist the UFC has ever seen, but he has had a hard time keeping himself on the organization's active roster of late.
He's managed to fight just once a year the past three years and has missed significant time, first while sorting out legal issues stemming from a hit-and-runand then after testing positive for banned substances during the lead-up to a canceled fight against Daniel Cormier at UFC 200.
According to Jones' attorney, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency later substantiated the fighter's claim that the positive test resulted from a tainted dietary supplement, but as of this writing, Jones is still out serving a one-year suspension.
If Jones can return and win back his light heavyweight title at age 30, he'll still have plenty of time to move past both Silva and St-Pierre for consideration as best ever. That future has never appeared less secure than now, however, as Jones' out-of-cage transgressions have taken on considerable momentum and left him facing what might be his last chance with UFC ownership.
For the time being, St-Pierre leads his two closest competitors by a nose. Even before he makes this comeback, the case against him as greatest of all time must be made primarily on style points.
From 2006 to his announced break from the sport at the end of 2013with the exception of roughly one year spent without the title after a fluke loss to Matt Serra at UFC 69he ruled the UFC welterweight division with merciless zeal. He defeated 12 consecutive challengers, more often than not taking out the best 170-pound fighters the UFC could find without so much as losing a round.
Critics called it boring, but the truth is, it was amazing. Without any organized background in wrestling, St-Pierre transformed himself from a stand-up-oriented, Kyokushin karate stylist to one of the most dominant grapplers in Octagon history.
He beat wrestlers such as Matt Hughes, Jon Fitch and Johny Hendricks. He beat potent strikers such as Nick Diaz and Carlos Condit. He beat submission aces such as Serra (in their rematch at UFC 83), BJ Penn and Jake Shields.
It didn't matter what they did. St-Pierre beat them all.
Meanwhile, his built-in Canadian audience turned him into the UFC's single biggest pay-per-view draw to that point. It was a different time for the UFC, but GSP's PPV numbers are still staggering. He sold an estimated 625,000 PPVs for his fight against Fitch at UFC 87, 770,000 against Dan Hardy at UFC 111 and 800,000 against Shields at UFC 129.
In today's UFC, there is next to no one who can consistently provide those kinds of numbers, outside of McGregor.
That's one place St-Pierre's detractors fall flat. The notion that MMA fighters need to be "exciting" only exists because of the PPV model. Conventional wisdom preaches that fighters need to impress audiences to convince them to shell out $60 to watch them fight.
But GSP never had a problem with that. In fact, he did it better than anybody else from his era.
Can he still? That remains to be seen.
His accomplishments to this point are nearly peerless, however. Now, if St-Pierre can return from his lengthy hiatus, defeat Bisping and win another UFC title in a different weight class?
With all due respect to Silva and Jonesand to borrow a phrase from longtime MMA announcer Michael Schiavellothat's good night, Irene.
Estimated pay-per-view numbers courtesy of Dave Meltzer's Wrestling Observer Newsletter, as compiled at MMA Payout.
Read more:
Georges St-Pierre Takes Aim at Immortality in Title Shot Against Michael Bisping - Bleacher Report
- Real Vampires, Immortality, Gothic, Pagan, Eternal Life ... - December 8th, 2016 [December 8th, 2016]
- Semi-Immortality - Superpower Wiki - Wikia - December 8th, 2016 [December 8th, 2016]
- Crown of Immortality - Wikipedia - December 8th, 2016 [December 8th, 2016]
- Amrita - Wikipedia - January 5th, 2017 [January 5th, 2017]
- 'Rick And Morty' Theory: Did Rick Gift Morty With Immortality ... - moviepilot.com - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Brian Dawkins: One day away from pro football immortality - Inside the Iggles - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Is Brain Augmentation Leading The Way To Immortality? - Wall Street Pit - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Jeff Jacobs: Near NFL Immortality, Tom Brady Shows Human Side - Hartford Courant - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- 3 former Cowboys ready to fight for immortality in Super Bowl LI - Cowboys Wire - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- Diet Culture Exists to Fight Off the Fear of Death - The Atlantic - The Atlantic - February 7th, 2017 [February 7th, 2017]
- The best evah? Not everybody at parade rated this year's comeback number one - The Boston Globe - February 8th, 2017 [February 8th, 2017]
- Why Immortality Is Overrated - NPR - February 9th, 2017 [February 9th, 2017]
- Immortality of written words - University of Virginia The Cavalier Daily - February 9th, 2017 [February 9th, 2017]
- Baidu-backer Singaporean Finian Tan bets on the next big thing ... - DEALSTREETASIA - February 10th, 2017 [February 10th, 2017]
- Sleepy Hollow: Ichabod Comes Home and Malcolm Achieves Immortality - TVOvermind - February 12th, 2017 [February 12th, 2017]
- Immortality | The Institute for Creation Research - February 12th, 2017 [February 12th, 2017]
- Immortality | Dragon Ball Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia - February 12th, 2017 [February 12th, 2017]
- Immortality (Celine Dion song) - Wikipedia - February 12th, 2017 [February 12th, 2017]
- Quotes About Immortality (489 quotes) - February 12th, 2017 [February 12th, 2017]
- Reality Of Immortality: Oregon State Is Five Games Away From ... - Building the Dam - February 14th, 2017 [February 14th, 2017]
- New Yorker seeks pinball immortality - Fox5NY - February 17th, 2017 [February 17th, 2017]
- McGraw One Step From Hoop Immortality :: Notre Dame Women's ... - Notre Dame Official Athletic Site - February 20th, 2017 [February 20th, 2017]
- Blind love and immortality haunt 'The Invention of Morel' | Chicago ... - Chicago Sun-Times - February 20th, 2017 [February 20th, 2017]
- Aussies should prep for immortality, as life expectancy rises - Techly - February 23rd, 2017 [February 23rd, 2017]
- Johnson chasing 8th title, racing immortality - La Crosse Tribune - February 23rd, 2017 [February 23rd, 2017]
- Technology, immortality and pensions - The Times (subscription) - February 24th, 2017 [February 24th, 2017]
- Fighting McGregor Just Another Easy Step to Immortality for Mayweather - The Sweet Science - February 24th, 2017 [February 24th, 2017]
- Faces of Russia: Mila Arutyunyan on Immortality - Argophilia Travel News - February 27th, 2017 [February 27th, 2017]
- Frank Mason becomes a part of KU basketball immortality - Wichita Eagle (blog) - March 1st, 2017 [March 1st, 2017]
- Living Immortality, Russian Economy in 2017, How Big Is Russia's Inequality Gap, and the Kremlin's Risky Plans - Institute of Modern Russia - March 1st, 2017 [March 1st, 2017]
- The mortal side of biological immortality - Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel - March 1st, 2017 [March 1st, 2017]
- Immortality | Harry Potter Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia - March 1st, 2017 [March 1st, 2017]
- Middletown's Bertoni is 4 wins away from 4 titles, state-wrestling immortality - Frederick News Post (subscription) - March 3rd, 2017 [March 3rd, 2017]
- Lecture 18 - The Badness of Death, Part III; Immortality ... - March 6th, 2017 [March 6th, 2017]
- Decoding death: Craig Venter's quest to uncover secret to immortality in our DNA - Genetic Literacy Project - March 9th, 2017 [March 9th, 2017]
- Atlassian aims for corporate immortality in the cloud - The Australian Financial Review - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- How two trades pushed Patrik Elias into Devils immortality | New ... - New York Post - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- The baseball immortality of Beaver County's James Madison Toy - Tribune-Review - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- Why the Grand National is the holy grail and sporting immortality the prize - Telegraph.co.uk - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- Diane Paulus sees immortality in 'Finding Neverland' - Orlando Sentinel - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- AI experts: Prepare for a sad immortality - Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- The Ayatollah and his immortality - Tehran Times - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- Public broadcasting's immortality defies reason - The Washington Post - Washington Post - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- Golden State Is One Win Away From Immortality, And The Cavs Can't Do Anything About It - UPROXX - June 8th, 2017 [June 8th, 2017]
- Golden State Is One NBA Finals Victory From Immortality - The Federalist - June 10th, 2017 [June 10th, 2017]
- Nick Tavares: Reds' Scooter Gennett the latest to achieve baseball immortality - SouthCoastToday.com - June 11th, 2017 [June 11th, 2017]
- Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Stanley Cup immortality - Yahoo Sports - June 12th, 2017 [June 12th, 2017]
- LIVE FOREVER? Julian Assange claims immortality is near by 'DIGITISING BRAINS' - Express.co.uk - June 16th, 2017 [June 16th, 2017]
- immortality at a price - TheRecord.com - June 17th, 2017 [June 17th, 2017]
- Achieving immortality through good cinema - The Navhind Times - June 17th, 2017 [June 17th, 2017]
- 'Immortality mushroom' discovered in mountains of western Turkey's anakkale - Daily Sabah - June 20th, 2017 [June 20th, 2017]
- FILMING IMMORTALITY: Independent filmmaker Tanya Fermin brings unreal life to Wilmington's film industry - encore Online - June 20th, 2017 [June 20th, 2017]
- Scientist Say Lack Of Funding Is Biggest Obstacle To Immortality - EconoTimes - June 21st, 2017 [June 21st, 2017]
- Hang in There: The 25-Year Wait for Immortality - June 21st, 2017 [June 21st, 2017]
- Lions v All Blacks: Furlong ready to take next step in bid for immortality - Belfast Telegraph - June 23rd, 2017 [June 23rd, 2017]
- Keanu Reeves Addresses Those Immortality Rumors (Video) - TheWrap - June 24th, 2017 [June 24th, 2017]
- Complete Immortality - TV Tropes - June 24th, 2017 [June 24th, 2017]
- Can The Harry Potter Fandom Survive A New Canon? - BuzzFeed News - June 30th, 2017 [June 30th, 2017]
- Why the super-rich are ploughing billions into the booming 'immortality industry' - Evening Standard - June 30th, 2017 [June 30th, 2017]
- Lions reaction: Sean O'Brien wants 'immortality' as Ferris says momentum could prove key to beating All Blacks - Belfast Telegraph - July 1st, 2017 [July 1st, 2017]
- Living to 125 and beyond: Scientists dispute there's a limit to - KMOV.com - KMOV.com - July 2nd, 2017 [July 2nd, 2017]
- Graham Simmons Takes Lions Hype To Barely Palatable Level During Sean O'Brien Interview - Balls.ie - July 3rd, 2017 [July 3rd, 2017]
- Achieving immortality through literature - The Navhind Times - July 3rd, 2017 [July 3rd, 2017]
- Immortality crowned best at Italian film festival - Tehran Times - Tehran Times - July 3rd, 2017 [July 3rd, 2017]
- Fancy a vitamin infusion? - EsquireMe - July 4th, 2017 [July 4th, 2017]
- British and Irish Lions 2017: Warren Gatland tells Lions to seize immortality after naming unchanged side for third ... - City A.M. - July 5th, 2017 [July 5th, 2017]
- Billionaires dream of immortality. The rest of us worry about healthcare - The Guardian - July 5th, 2017 [July 5th, 2017]
- Newgrange: Ireland's amazing feat of Stone Age engineering - CNN International - July 6th, 2017 [July 6th, 2017]
- Ronan O'Gara suggests how Sean O'Brien should have responded to immortality question - SportsJOE.ie - July 7th, 2017 [July 7th, 2017]
- The immortality of man - The Hindu - July 7th, 2017 [July 7th, 2017]
- Lions have what it takes to claim immortality against All Blacks - Irish Times - July 7th, 2017 [July 7th, 2017]
- 'Biggest game ever' for Lions as immortality beckons - Irish Times - July 8th, 2017 [July 8th, 2017]
- Reliving Edhi's journey to immortality | Pakistan | thenews.com.pk - The News International - July 8th, 2017 [July 8th, 2017]
- Conditional immortality - Sunbury Daily Item - July 8th, 2017 [July 8th, 2017]
- Maradona, the mafia and immortality: three decades on from Napoli's Holy Grail - The42 - July 10th, 2017 [July 10th, 2017]
- DARK NIGHTS: METAL #1 First Look - The Hints, Symbols, & 'Ocean of Possibilities' - Newsarama - July 11th, 2017 [July 11th, 2017]
- DARK NIGHTS: METAL 101: The Immortal Man & The Four Tribes - Newsarama - July 11th, 2017 [July 11th, 2017]
- Immortality Inducer - TV Tropes - July 12th, 2017 [July 12th, 2017]
- Letter to the Editor: Conditional immortality? - Sunbury Daily Item - July 14th, 2017 [July 14th, 2017]
- Virtual graveyards: Algorithms of death and the cost of immortality - The Conversation CA - July 14th, 2017 [July 14th, 2017]