UFC President Dana White recently announced that middleweight champion Michael Bisping is no longer defending the gold against Georges St. Pierre, but will instead fight Yoel Romero.
According to Romero’s manager in Malki Kawa, it’s time for the middleweight division to move on.
“I think the kicker in all of this is Bisping. It depends on Bisping because if Bisping refuses to fight, then what’s the next step? That’s gonna be the next thing. [If Bisping does refuse] I’m calling for them to strip the belt at this point. It’s time to strip the belt. . . It’s unfortunate. It’s a bad situation for everyone to be in but at the end of the day, it’s time for us to move on with this division,” Kawa said on The Luke Thomas Show.
Romero is going to getting the first title shot in his UFC career, while Bisping is going to be making the second defense of his championship.
Kawa also says that Romero has accepted the title fight with the British champion.
“It could be. It’s a possibility but I doubt it. How do you come out publicly and say, ‘Yoel Romero is the guy that Bisping’s gonna fight’ one time, then you have him step aside and then do the same thing a second time? I just don’t see how. From what I’ve got from people at the UFC, they’re definitely gonna target the fight between Bisping and Yoel Romero. We’ve already accepted. We told them we’re in and we’re ready to rock and roll so we’re waiting on Bisping to accept,” says Kawa.
If the title fight happened between Bisping and GSP, it would’ve taken place in November the earliest.
