The Bottom Line: The Best Path Forward

Editor’s note: The views and opinions expressed below are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Sherdog.com, its affiliates and sponsors or its parent company, Evolve Media.

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For much of the year, a Michael Bisping-Georges St. Pierre UFC middleweight title fight has been floated as the next bout for each man. The fight didn’t really make sense for anyone besides Bisping -- he would get the biggest money fight of his career -- yet still it hung over and paralyzed two divisions. UFC President Dana White this week announced his intention to have St. Pierre’s return fight instead be against the winner of Tyron Woodley-Demian Maia for the UFC welterweight crown that GSP never lost. It’s still not a given that will happen as St. Pierre has expressed his continuing preference for Bisping, but if the shift takes place, it will be a tremendous development and is clearly the best option for the fans and the sport.

It’s been a rough year for the Ultimate Fighting Championship, with diminishing fan interest and a lot of hostility directed at the promotion from fighters and fans. A big part of that is that there haven’t been enough fights that clearly establish the best fighter in a given division. That’s the heart of the UFC’s appeal, and it has unfortunately been missing of late. Conor McGregor’s move from featherweight to lightweight, followed by his boxing foray, has left ambiguity as to the best in both the featherweight and lightweight divisions. The lightweight title goes undefended while the featherweight champion was crowned in a bout involving two fighters McGregor already defeated.

The same basic quandary has existed in the middleweight and welterweight divisions. At middleweight, Bisping hasn’t defended his title against the top contenders. Bisping is the rightful champion, but many feel others will beat him and they aren’t being given the chance to prove it. At welterweight, Maia was put in a holding pattern, as it was unclear who Woodley would defend against next. The sport thrives when champions continually defend against the top contender in their division, and that hasn’t been happening.

A Bisping-St. Pierre fight would only compound that problem. A Bisping win would still leave the top contenders waiting, and Bisping might decide to retire after a crowning achievement. If St. Pierre won, it would be even worse. St. Pierre would be faced with an awful choice. His first option would be to give up the middleweight title without defending it, an unfitting action for the beloved all-time great. It would be hard to escape the conclusion that he chose Bisping because he thought it an easier fight and had no intention of taking on the tougher challenges in the division.

The alternative would be that St. Pierre would defend the title against monsters like Yoel Romero and Luke Rockhold who are physically bigger and stronger than him. After years out of action and in his mid-30s, this seems like a recipe for disaster. St. Pierre should be competing in his more natural weight class, particularly as he gets older and the supreme athleticism of his prime diminishes. Meanwhile, the longtime welterweight champion would still hang over the division in which he never lost his title.

The possibilities presented by a Bisping-St. Pierre bout are largely awful. Usually when a choice has terrible consequences, it means there is another bad choice on the other side. However, in this case, the alternative makes all the sense in the world and is incredibly enticing for fans. At middleweight, Romero and Robert Whittaker will fight for the interim middleweight title at UFC 213 on Saturday in Las Vegas. That fight takes on added significance if there is great confidence the winner will finally get his shot at Bisping.

If Bisping beats the winner of that fight, there will be no doubts as to his worthiness as champion. If Romero or Whittaker wins, that fighter too will be an excellent champion. Other top fighters like Gegard Mousasi, Rockhold, Kelvin Gastelum and Chris Weidman can then line up to work their way into contention for future title shots. After the Bisping-Dan Henderson gimmick fight and the long St. Pierre-related delay, there will finally be certainty at 185 pounds.

The direction would be even better at 170 pounds. Since St. Pierre left the UFC, welterweight has produced arguably the best top fights in any division. Unfortunately, there just hasn’t been the same fan interest. A big part of that is the greatest welterweight champion ever hung over it all. His return to recapture the title he never lost and that he’s so closely associated with is the perfect story. It would be even more powerful if St. Pierre spent more time talking about how much that championship means to him and less time pretending to be offended by Bisping’s good-natured potshots.

The principal reason to fight Bisping instead was that it was presumed to be the bigger fight, but St. Pierre going after the welterweight title is the much better story. Meanwhile, there’s no guarantee fans won’t conclude Bisping and St. Pierre are selling “wolf tickets,” talking trash to sell the fight when each man actually likes the other. The path forward at welterweight would be so simple and clear. Woodley and Maia would fight to crown the rightful champion and then the legendary champion would return to square everything.

The differing paths forward offered by where St. Pierre fights next couldn’t be much starker. St. Pierre returning for the welterweight title would finally provide clarity at 170 and 185 pounds. A fight with Bisping would muddy the waters in both divisions even more. In a promotion that could use more stability from top to bottom, the choice is obvious. Hopefully the savvy St. Pierre comes to embrace that reality.