This fight is not likely to happen until September at the earliest. Conor McGregor’s UFC comeback was initially projected as August.
Georges St-Pierre is back and the fight possibilities seem endless.
Anderson Silva, Johny Hendricks, Tyron Woodley, Michael Bisping, Nick Diaz and Conor McGregor have all been linked with a comeback fight for ‘Rush’.
The former welterweight champion’s coach, Firas Zahabi, has two “epic” fights in mind. One of them will surely excite fight fans the world over.
During a wide-ranging interview with Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour, Zahabi said his ‘ideal scenario’ would be for St-Pierre to take on either UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping or McGregor. It is likely that any fight against the Dubliner would be at a catchweight of either 160 or 165lbs.
St-Pierre vacated the welterweight title [now held by Woodley] in late 2013 but Zahabi is not certain if his fighter would be overly keen on chasing and defending titles again. He said:
“I thought those two [Bisping and McGregor] would be two epic fights. One, he would go a little lower; one, he would go a little higher. But those are really, really intriguing fights.
“Of course, Tyron Woodley, he’s the champion and et cetera, but he has his fight with ‘Wonderboy’ [Stephen Thompson]. And if Wonderboy wins, then they’ll have a trilogy. And of course we don’t want to fight with Wonderboy as we go way back together.”
Zahabi added: “Of course, McGregor is such a mega-star that if you put those two on a main event, I don’t think that anybody in the world wouldn’t watch that. I think that even non-MMA fans would watch that.”
McGregor already boasts the UFC pay-per-view buy record of more than 1.6 million for his UFC 202 victory over Nate Diaz. Were he to take on St-Pierre, in the opinion of Joe Rogan and many others within the business, it would smash all previous records.
Speaking soon after UFC 202, last year, St-Pierre told The MMA Hour he would be interested in taking on ‘The Notorious’. He declared:
“Look, I do not run after these guys. I do not run after him but if he calls me out and if it’s something the fans want – I know he is a big, huge draw – then I am am interested.
“I think I can beat him. I can beat both of these guys [McGregor and Diaz] too. As a fighter, I’m confident of beating them because I think I am the best.”
Were such a fight to take place, there is also the added spice of McGregor’s derisory comments about the Canadian at his recent ‘An Experience With… ‘ event in Manchester. Asked about St-Pierre’s role in setting up a new fighter’s union, McGregor proclaimed:
“I’m like, what the fuck are you talking about? The only reason [St-Pierre is] standing in the middle of that union is because you couldn’t get the deal you want. You’re the fakest of everyone up there.”
This story is practically writing itself.
A mighty option, were any Floyd Mayweather Jr. boxing bout to indefinitely stall.
