George St. Pierre’s head coach Firas Zahabi would like GSP’s return fight to be against UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping or UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor
The last time George St. Pierre was seen inside the Octagon, he defeated Johny Hendricks at UFC 167 to defend his UFC welterweight championship for a ninth-consecutive time and his 12th consecutive victory.
Since then, GSP had been away from the UFC and mixed martial arts as a whole until last week when the UFC and president Dana White announced the former champion’s return. Shortly after the announcement of his return, White named some potential opponents in mind for GSP including the winner of Stephen Thompson vs Tyron Woodley at UFC 209, middleweight champion Michael Bisping. White even entertained the possibility of GSP making his return at lightweight, the division where Conor McGregor is champion.
White seems to have a similar mindset to GSP’s coach Firas Zahabi, who also mentioned the likes of Bisping and McGregor while appearing as a guest on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani. During his interview with Helwani, Zahabi said his ideal scenario for GSP’s return would be a fight against Bisping or McGregor.
"“My ideal scenario, I don’t know if it’s still up for grabs, but I was really happy when there was a buzzing of Bisping or McGregor. I thought those two would be two epic fights. One, he would go a little lower [in weight]; one, he would go a little higher. But those are really, really intriguing fights. Of course, Tyron Woodley, he’s the [welterweight] champion but he has his fight with ‘Wonderboy’ [Thompson]. And if ‘Wonderboy’ wins, then they’ll have a trilogy. And of course we don’t want to fight with ‘Wonderboy,’ we go way back together."
Zahabi went on to say that he believes that St-Pierre is not worried about winning the welterweight title but is intrigued about the possibility of snatching the middleweight title or a fight with McGregor.
In a fight with Bisping, if he is still the champion at the time of the fight, St-Pierre would have the opportunity to become the fourth fighter in UFC history to win a belt in multiple weight classes. A super fight between a former champion and the current champion Bisping would certainly draw a crowd. Bisping usually plays a villainous role in fights with his opponents, it would make sense for the UFC to book this bought in GSP’s home country of Canada.
Aside from the potential for title history for GSP, the fight would give Bisping the biggest money fight of his career. The middleweight champion would be crazy to object to fighting in Canada, and could relish the heel role with his trash talking game as he prepared to take on one of the greatest fighters of all-time.
Of course, there’s always the possible matchup against Conor McGregor, the current lightweight champion. St-Pierre’s fighting resume speaks for itself and matching him up against the biggest money draw in the UFC would be one of the biggest superfight matchups the company could make right now.
The biggest bonus of this superfight matchup is that the lightweight championship wouldn’t need to be on the line to make it a big-time draw. Put Conor McGregor in the Octagon and fans will watch and listen and the same could be said for St-Pierre. And, St-Pierre can reportedly make the lightweight limit.
McGregor’s outlandish personality outside of the Octagon is polar opposite to the very respectful St-Pierre, but when you put two of the biggest names in the sport against each other, everyone would be sure to watch.
Georges St-Pierre has plenty of options in his return and both his coaches and UFC President Dana White seem to share a similar opinion on who could be his future opponent in 2017.