Georges St-Pierre cites 'minor' eye injury for delayed comeback, still wants Michael Bisping fight
— -- UFC star Georges St-Pierre?said he is currently dealing with a "minor" eye injury, which is the reason his return to the Octagon has been delayed.
Speaking to Justin Kingsley at the C2 Montreal conference Friday, St-Pierre (25-2) said he suffered the injury before the UFC announced he would fight middleweight champion Michael Bisping back in March.
According to St-Pierre, the UFC was aware of his injury and time frame for recovery but still asked him to fight in July. He has refused to do so.
"If it were up to me, I would come back," St-Pierre told Kingsley, according to MMAFighting.com. "The reason is I had a problem with my eye. I had an injury.
"My vision has not been back yet. It will be back. It's something very minor. The doctor insisted for me that I don't spar until September.
"The UFC was aware of it. They knew I couldn't fight during the summer, but they still insisted on doing that press conference with Michael Bisping. And when it happened, we were not very excited about the idea, but we wanted that fight, so we decided to do it, but then it turned into a negative thing because it took so long."
St-Pierre, 36, is a former longtime welterweight champion. The Quebec native vacated the title in 2013 to take a break from the sport.
Last week, UFC president Dana White told ESPN that the promotion was moving on with an interim middleweight title fight between Yoel Romero and Robert Whittaker in July, and that St-Pierre would make his return at welterweight.
Bisping is currently sidelined with a knee injury. Both he and St-Pierre have continued to express interest in fighting each other, despite White's comments.
"I always said that if I was coming back to fight, it needed to be a fight that excites me," St-Pierre said. "I wanted to fight Michael Bisping because I wanted to fight someone that could elevate me. Michael Bisping is the champion now, and I think that he could elevate me as much as I could elevate him. I'm taking a huge risk coming back. I'm putting my legacy on the line."
