Entertainment in all it’s forms – music, cinema, sports – lives on stars. And the UFC is short right now. Brock Lesnar and Jon Jones are out following flagged anti-doping tests. Ronda Rousey is very apparently retired. Anderson Silva is in his 40s. Conor McGregor has never defended either of his UFC belts. The return of welterweight G.O.A.T. Georges St-Pierre vs. middleweight champion Michael Bisping at UFC 217 on November 4 in Madison Square Garden is a potential bright spot.
However, GSP has not fought since 2013, and new fans may barely remember who he is. On his latest fight companion podcast, Joe Rogan told guests Brendan Schaub and Eddie Bravo that he heard the card, which has two other title fights, is not moving a lot of tickets.
Bisping vs. GSP, now, I’m hearing, that that’s not selling well, Madison Square Garden, said Rogan, as transcribed by Milan Ordoñez for BE. That’s unfortunate.
Here’s the thing, though. If you really stop and think about it, that was four years ago since he last fought Jonny Hendricks. The people that are into the UFC now, they’re post-Ronda Rousey, post-Conor McGregor, the casual fans.
The hardcore fans like you and I, we’re gonna watch that fight, for sure. Like, ‘OK, I want to see what Bisping looks like fighting a guy like Georges St-Pierre who’s smaller than him, taken four years off.’ Bisping’s got this opportunity to make a s***load of money. And then Georges, how’s he gonna look? We haven’t seen him in four years.
The UFC released footage for the UFC 217 headliner and St-Pierre looked a little dad-body.
He’s a little soft,” said Rogan. “Kind of heavy around the middle, eating a lot. There’s a big difference between that and Kevin Lee jacked. Like that picture of him on top of Tony, when he was dropping bombs on him. Jacked.
Georges does not look that good. You can be in great shape at 35 years old, but it really, completely helps if you were super active for a long time.”
In addition to the Bisping vs. GSP main event, UFC 217 feature women’s strawweight champion Joanna ‘Violence’ Jedrzejczyk vs. Rose Namajunas, and bantamweight champion Cody Garbrandt vs. T.J. Dillashaw.
