Opinion: GSP-Bisping Does Not Suck

Editor’s note: The views and opinions expressed below are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Sherdog.com, its affiliates and sponsors or its parent company, Evolve Media.

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In some ways, this may fail as a successful archetype column. I'm not sure this qualifies as a “hot take,” even if my opinion seems to put me in a particular MMA minority. There's a reason this column is not called “A Defense of Michael Bisping-Georges St. Pierre” or “Bisping-GSP is Actually the Best Fight in History and You're a Moron If You Disagree.” My thesis, if simple and decidedly unflashy, is simply that St. Pierre fighting Bisping does not suck.

I don't expect any MMA news item to be met with unanimous enthusiasm, especially in an online forum, or on Twitter, or on another sort of platform that by design relishes and rewards dissent, snark and so forth. After all, I saw people complaining that St. Pierre was coming back to the UFC, period; some people are never satisfied and simply like to complain. I'm also wary of misconstruing the ideas and opinions I see in my social media feeds, even if they appear to be popular stances. The sorts of casual consumers responsible for the UFC generating revenue, the people who will make GSP-Bisping a financial success for the company, aren't arguing about the protocols of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.

So having said that, I was hardly surprised on Wednesday when UFC President Dana White announced GSP-Bisping on ESPN and my inbox and Twitter mentions were suddenly filled with discontented folks. However, even considering how reactionary and hard to please the diehard MMA community can be, the depth and breadth of that discontent did raise my eyebrow a little bit.

Anyone have anything positive to say about Bisping-GSP?

— Josh Gross (@yay_yee) March 1, 2017

Two weeks ago when I wrote about Fedor Emelianenko and GSP, I mentioned the mini-sweepstakes to be St. Pierre's comeback opponent, but I casually and unconsciously wrote as if GSP-Bisping would be actualized. I even referenced the betting odds on various potential opponents and pointed out Bisping was the odds-on favorite at +140. Bisping had even publicly talked about St. Pierre's desire to fight him and said negotiations were close to finalized before GSP even formally announced his comeback. What did these people think was coming?

There are legitimate criticisms to be made of the fight. It's hard not to be sympathetic to Yoel Romero, at 8-0 in the UFC, since he has been promised a title shot twice, and now, the 39-year-old is going to keep waiting. Bisping, ever the gentlemen, says he'll beat St. Pierre and face Romero just six weeks later, which is highly optimistic and awfully unlikely. The bout's formulation is a reminder of WME-IMG's desperation to recoup that $4 billion and how quickly the UFC will undermine its own structure of contendership to make dollars.

Of course, businesses are supposed to try to make money and the UFC jerking around contenders is a legacy WME-IMG inherits from Zuffa, which inherited it from Semaphore Entertainment Group. Both are genuine critiques, but neither are new motifs. Also, outside of Anderson Silva or a pointless rematch with Nick Diaz, almost any other opponent for St. Pierre would louse up a division's championship situation.

Then again, maybe it's just that devilish magic of Bisping, constantly inflaming certain MMA fans and driving them both insane and stupid. I've seen several people grousing and complaining that Bisping may end up being the first man to beat St. Pierre and Silva.

In seriousness, there are other grounds to question if not outright criticize Bisping-GSP. Considering the whole point of the bout is to make big money, what does it mean if this fight only does 700,000 buys instead of surpassing one million? What if it produces a $7 million gate, instead of breaking $10 million or beyond? It is a rational concern.

I feel for Romero, who was doing such a damn fine job with his trash talking campaign against Bisping, and I do generally prefer when MMA promotions operate as competitive meritocracies where deserved challengers get their chance to fight for titles. Maybe I'm totally wrong about St. Pierre's drawing power in 2017 and ultimately his bout with Bisping doesn't do the level of blockbuster business the UFC is banking on. As I wrote, the column isn't called “Bisping-St. Pierre is Just the Greatest Thing.” However, none of those beefs are good enough to completely invalidate the bout.

I mentioned WME-IMG's pressing desire to do major pay-per-views and accelerate the moneymaking process, so it's important to also consider that the UFC didn't come to Bisping-GSP from a position of power. St. Pierre was the one with the leverage, he is the star the company was trying to coax back and he was the one who forced the UFC to make concessions to him and not vice versa. By all accounts, St. Pierre wanted the Bisping fight; it may be a stretch to think the UFC couldn't find some way to convince “Rush” to take a different fight if the promotion so desired, but it has spent over three years trying to drag this guy out of retirement. His desire to fight Bisping for the middleweight title isn't the hill to let that negotiation die on.

Despite his history as one of MMA's biggest stars and greatest draws, St. Pierre doesn't do it for everybody. I may secretly judge these people who claim to be fight fans, but I can live with it. GSP might be the best MMA fighter ever, and even if it comes as a result of cherry picking a stylistically preferable champion during an advantageous moment in time, the idea of him daring to return and trying to accomplish something historic is sensational and compelling. Sure, maybe come July or whenever it happens, we wind up with a 25-minute snoozefest in practice, but watching an indelible moment in history isn't always exciting. We just passed the 10-year anniversary of Randy Couture coming out of retirement to whoop Tim Sylvia, a beloved MMA moment remembered with extreme fondness, despite the only moment of real excitement coming seconds into the bout when Couture dropped Sylvia. Yet when the fight comes up, no one says, “Well, actually, it was pretty boring.”

In some capacities, it's already surpassed expectations, with Friday's press conference being a delicious bit of surreal drama, as a surprisingly acerbic and retaliatory St. Pierre mocked a hungover and possibly still drunk Bisping, telling him he stunk like booze. He then did the classic “You have no idea how bad you look right now” routine by telling the middleweight champ he was embarrassing himself. If Bisping drives St. Pierre back to his “dark place,” so be it. It is entertainment.

Just because GSP-Bisping isn't the absolute best of things and just because it comes packaged with a few inherent shortcomings and flaws doesn't mean that it isn't mostly good. It most certainly does not suck -- unless you're Yoel Romero.