UFC President Dana White appeared on the noon edition of ESPN Sportscenter today to announce that former UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St. Pierre will be returning to the Octagon after a three year absence to challenge UFC Middleweight Champion Michael Bisping.
A date and location for the fight has yet to be announced, although White said the fight will happen in the second half of 2017. A press conference will take place Friday in Las Vegas.
White also stated that GSP has to go through the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) testing pool for a few months before he can fight again. GSP removed himself from that pool when negotiations with the company went sound last year. Bisping also also recovering from knee surgery. He last competed at UFC 204 and earned a decision win over Dan Henderson at the event.
Yoel Romero was expected to fight Bisping next after defeating former UFC Middleweight Champion Chris Weidman at UFC 205, but that isn’t the case.
GSP will be making his middleweight division debut in this fight, all of his previous professional MMA fights inside and outside of the Octagon came at welterweight.
Bisping has been campaigning for a “big money” fight for awhile since beating Henderson.
If GSP were to win the title, he would join BJ Penn, Randy Couture and Conor McGregor as the only fighters in UFC history to win gold in two weight classes.
