Michael Bisping Explains Why He Still Wants To Fight Georges St-Pierre

LAS VEGAS — Michael Bisping wanted to fight Georges St-Pierre at UFC 213 this weekend, but that won’t happen, for reasons that vary depending on who you ask.

But the UFC middleweight champion still wants his crack at GSP, and the reason is a tale as old as time: Money.

“I wanted to collect on that payday,” Bisping told NESN.com’s Rachel Holt on Wednesday after he taped FOX’s “UFC Tonight” at the Park Theater. “You know, they get you all excited that you’re going to have a multi-million-dollar paycheck coming your way. Who doesn’t want to collect on several million dollars? I want to get that several million dollars. That’s all it is. …

“It’s not anything to do with (Yoel) Romero or (Robert) Whittaker — not wanting to fight those guys. I just want to get paid as much as I can for doing as little as possible.”

UFC president Dana White recently said the Romero-Whittaker winner Saturday night at UFC 213 will fight Bisping, but the champ doesn’t seem worried about those challengers.

“I’d like to fight them both, to be honest,” said Bisping, who will be at T-Mobile Arena with FOX on fight night. “I look at both guys, and I see them both very beatable. … I’ll fight them both. I don’t care.”

Bisping and Romero, of course, have history, with the champ answering the challenger’s in-the-octagon smack talk last year with a double bird and a laugh. There would be no such laughing, though, if they eventually do meet for the belt.

“I don’t really have a lot of respect for Yoel as a person,” Bisping said. “As a fighter, he’s achieved a lot of great things — he’s had some fantastic performances. But he did serve a suspension for performance-enhancing drugs, so straight away, that turns me off. As a person, I’m not overly keen on him. I don’t like what he stands for. I find him to be a hypocrite. … In fact, I see him losing Saturday night.”

And UFC fans would win by seeing Bisping back in the octagon, whether it’s against GSP, Romero or Whittaker.