By Elias Cepeda

UFC president Dana White gave an interview with MMA Junkie this week that may have led some fans to believe that there is finally clarity on returning former welterweight king Georges St-Pierre’s fighting future. Make no mistake, however, there is no such clarity.

First, some background.

After St-Pierre walked away from the sport in 2013 following a controversial decision win over Johny Hendricks, White immediately began to trash the living legend.

That continued for years as White and the UFC publically questioned the international superstar and warrior’s fighting spirit, as well as his marketability. Despite White’s insistence for years that St-Pierre would never fight again, GSP announced his intention to return to competition and the UFC then announced that his comeback bout would be a historic challenge of champion Michael Bisping for the middleweight title, though no fight date was given because, it turned out, the UFC hadn’t actually locked-down the contest before announcing it in an expensive press conference.


Photo Credit: Jason Silva-USA TODAY Sports

Then, because of injuries to Bisping and St-Pierre, that fight got delayed before White angrily announced it canceled forever. Neither Bisping nor St-Pierre seemed in accordance with that in public statements, and seemed to hold onto hope that the mega-fight would still happen once both were healthy.

Subsequently, White just last month said that Yoel Romero, not GSP, would be the next to challenge for the middleweight championship. That turned out to be false and instead the UFC made yet another meaningless interim title, this time for middleweight.

Back down at welterweight, champion Tyron Woodley defends his belt in a hastily assembled fight against number one contender Demian Maia next month. Still, where GSP fit into all of this was unclear when White made his remarks this week.

That brings us up to the present.

“Georges and I talked a couple days ago when he was in Vegas,” White told MMA Junkie.

“Georges is saying he wants to fight – we’ll get this thing figured out. We’re talking about Tyron Woodley and Demian Maia. These two are going to fight soon. That will free up the 170-pound champion for Georges St-Pierre to return and try to regain his belt.”

[tweet url="https://twitter.com/arielhelwani/status/880546474114785280" hide_media="0" hide_thread="1"]

Sadly, none of those words from White mean very much at all. Instead, they just follow the pattern of White speaking out of turn, announcing plans of and for fighters who are not on board with said plans.
 
In fact, MMAFighting reporter Ariel Helwani reported that St-Pierre told him White flat-out lied when he said that he’d met with “Rush,” recently. Helwani said on Twitter that St-Pierre has told him he very much still intends to fight Bisping in an attempt to win gold at a second weight class when he returns to the cage.

[tweet url="https://twitter.com/arielhelwani/status/880546852101251072" hide_media="0" hide_thread="1"]
 
“Spoke to Georges St-Pierre today,” Helwani wrote.
 
“He told me his preference is to still fight Bisping next, contrary to reports recently. Also, he said he did not have a convo/meeting with Dana White recently to discuss his next fight. In short, his target is still [Michael Bisping] next.”
 
White routinely disparages institutions that provide either checks to he and his promotion’s power (athletic commissions and their judges and referees, for example) or which are widely held to be bringers of verifiable facts (like the press), some of which can contradict or interfere with his company’s goals or message. White says that because the media is so unreliable, for example, fans can’t know what is true or not.
 
This effort to disparage institutions and create a narrative that truth and facts are unattainable, or at least that to the extent that they are, they come from one individual is a much wider societal phenomenon that we won’t go into right now, but White’s little world and small efforts are certainly a microcosm of that.
 
Often times, the things White criticizes media members for reporting end up being true and different than the misinformation he himself previously disseminated. When that’s the case, he and the UFC make flaccid arguments about how, even though those reports were true, media members should have not reported them because they somehow hurt the UFC, and what hurts the UFC in turn hurts all of mixed martial arts, and all of us.


Photo Credit: © Stephen R. Sylvanie

 Again, the parallels to larger society are a bit obvious and not the point we’re making today. The point, here and now, is that when Dana White says something is a sure thing there often isn’t any particular reason to believe him.
 
That goes for Georges St-Pierre and his return bout. Dana White says he’s met with St-Pierre recently and that they are discussing his vying for the welterweight championship.
 
If St-Pierre himself is saying that he A. has not met with White recently to discuss his return, and B. that he still plans to fight Michael Bisping at middleweight, not the welterweight champ, we have absolutely no clarity on what the heck is going to happen, next, at the top of the middleweight and welterweight divisions. So far, all we have are headlines, but no bout agreements, fight dates, or even a verbal consensus from the principles involved (the two fighters and the promotion) as to what will or should happen, next.
 
We’d rather bring you concrete news on what will happen next with St-Pierre and all the rest, but unfortunately all we can do today is explain to you how much of what you’ve been told this week really isn’t as reliable of news as you may have thought. We’ll bring you news of actual, concrete developments as they happen, but until then we’ll do our best to help you cut through the fat.