Not many people were buying Georges St-Pierre staying as a middleweight for the long term (or even short term for that matter), and those cynics have been proven right. Last night the newly-crowned UFC Middleweight Champion vacated his title in a statement released on UFC.com.
“My fight at UFC 217 was one of the greatest nights of my life but I now need to take some time to focus on my health. Out of respect to the athletes and the sport, I don’t want to hold up the division. I will be giving up my belt and once I’m healthy I look forward to working with the UFC to determine what’s next in my career.”
This means that the current interim champion, Robert Whittaker, has been promoted to the “real” champion. And, as expected, he’ll be defended his title on home turf at UFC in Perth, Australia on Feb 11th (Feb 10th in North America). He’ll be going up against former champion Luke Rockhold, who recently came back from a long layoff and smushed David Branch.
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