GSP Says Ring Rust Not A Factor In Fight With Michael Bisping

Former UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St. Pierre will be challenging UFC Middleweight Champion Michael Bisping for the gold later this year.

GSP hasn’t competed in almost four years and while he believes in ring rust, the fighter says it won’t play a factor in the fight.

“I believe in ring rust. People say there’s no such thing but I believe in ring rust. It will be an issue but I’m a very experienced man. I’m one of the guys that’s spent the most time in the octagon in the UFC, maybe the most, I’m not sure in terms of time. I think because I have a lot of experience, the more time I will spend as the fight goes, the more comfortable I will be. For me, it will be very important [at] the first second of the fight. That’s when I will have to be very aware, very careful. That will be the most dangerous moment for me because when you have ring rust, that’s the hardest part of the fight. When you just step in and the fight start, that’s where the ring rust comes from, the difficulty of adaptation. But after a few minutes, I will be back to normal,” GSP said to Hayabusa.

The last time that GSP competed in an MMA fight of any kind was a decision win over Johny Hendricks at UFC 167 in 2013.

Instead of ring rust, the former welterweight kingpin says the additional weight he has to put on so he can compete at middleweight provides the biggest challenge.

“When I knew that we were going to fight Michael Bisping, when I signed it, that’s when I decided to try and put [on] a little bit more weight. I won’t be able to put [on] a lot because I’m a natural guy but I’m already a little bit bigger than I was. I’m the biggest I’ve ever been, right now, in my life. Bisping will still be bigger than me but I’m confident it will help. It’s not my natural size. I’ve never been that big in my life but as a man, I’m gonna be honest, men want to have bigger muscles. They want to be big, so it’s a good thing. I’m happy to be a little bit bigger. [Smiling]. This is not the weight class I’m used to competing at, but for that fight, I want to make history against Michael Bisping. It’s a guy that I want to fight and he wants to fight me. It’s the guy with the highest stock right now and he’s the man to beat, so that’s why I’m doing it,” says GSP.

A date for the fight has yet to be set, but Bisping has stated in the past that he wants the fight to happen by July or he will fight a different opponent.