LAS VEGAS – Although the Ultimate Fighting Championship is returning to Montreal for UFC 140 in Montreal, Canadian superstar and UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre won't be part of the December card.
UFC president Dana White today told MMAjunkie.com (http://www.mmajunkie.com) the French-Canadian isn't being targeted for the lineup.
"Georges St-Pierre is not fighting in December in Montreal," he said following a pre-UFC 130 press conference.
While talks are ongoing for a potential superfight between St-Pierre (22-2 MMA, 16-2 UFC) and Strikeforce welterweight champion Nick Diaz (25-7 MMA, 6-4 UFC), White downplayed the likelihood of the fight and said a next opponent for GSP hasn't officially been decided.
So what are the odds of St-Pierre vs. Diaz, a fight that has generated increasing interest from fight fans given the lack of new challengers for GSP at welterweight?
"If I actually gave you a percentage, I'd be speaking out of turn," he said. "I honestly don't know. Nothing has been worked out. Nothing has been talked about. ... If I gave you an answer, I'd be lying just to make you stop asking me the question."
White, though, recently met with Diaz here in Las Vegas, the UFC's home base. But White said talk of a potential St-Pierre fight was limited at best, and their talk instead focused on Diaz's potential boxing bout with Jeff Lacy, which recently was scratched.
"Diaz came to Vegas because some boxing promoter was running around saying he was going to box Lacy," he said. "That's why he came. Everybody was like, 'What's he going to do? Is he going to box? What do you think?' (I said), 'I think I'm going to sit down and talk him out of boxing. That's what I think.' And that's what happened."
And he suggested it wasn't too hard of a sell. They had a detailed talk about Diaz's boxing aspirations and ultimately decided against.
What did it take?
"I'd say it was little bit of everything," he said. "The funny thing is all these boxers want to come over here and fight our guys – because the media talks about the money in boxing and boxing makes so much money. They have no clue what they're talking about. You get out there and talk to 90 – maybe 95 – percent of the boxers, and they would love to be over here. It's just one of those things. You've got to reel the guys in sometimes."
Source: http://mmajunkie.com/news/23735/white-champ-st-pierre-isnt-fighting-at-ufc-140-in-montreal-next-challenger-not-set.mma
