Former UFC Middleweight Champion Luke Rockhold has been on the shelf with a knee injury and he hasn’t competed since UFC 199.
The former champion claims that if a returning Georges St. Pierre wins the UFC Middleweight Title later this year, the new champion won’t be defending the gold against deserving names.
“He’s not gonna fight one of the top contenders, I guarantee you that,” Rockhold said on Submission Radio. “He won’t fight one, he won’t fight two and he won’t fight three, guarantee it.”
Rockhold lost the middleweight title to Michael Bisping at the aforementioned UFC 199 event. Criticism of a potential GSP title reign aside, the former champion doesn’t like the fight with Bisping as a whole.
“Unfortunate that they took the route they took,” Rockhold said. “I understand the business and I understand what they’re doing but I don’t think they’re really thinking ahead in making this fight. I think there’s a lot of better options other than tying up the division and making this thing happen. I don’t think Bisping’s a draw. He hasn’t proven to be a draw, so what’s the point of putting GSP in there with him, a man that’s never obviously fought at middleweight and has been out for three years? I think him (GSP) and Nick Diaz, I think him Anderson Silva, I think there’s a lot of other fights that make the money they need and then sells that without doing what they had to do.”
Although the date for the GSP/Bisping fight has yet to be announced, it’s expected to happen in the second half of 2017.
