GSP says Bisping is 'terrified' of his wrestling, expects stoppage win at UFC 217
Georges St-Pierre has heard it all before.
The former welterweight king has fielded a bevy of insults from UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping - whom he'll face at UFC 217 on Nov. 4 - but as he told Ariel Helwani on Monday's edition of "The MMA Hour," St-Pierre believes Bisping's incessant belittlement of his patented takedown-heavy style betrays a fear of it.
"He's playing always the same song. He's terrified of me wrestling him. Terrified," St-Pierre said, per MMA Fighting's Shaun Al-Shatti. "In every interview he does, he's begging me to stand and bang with him. In every interview. ... I mean, if you don't know the ground (game), you shouldn't be in MMA. You should be in kickboxing.
"Fighting on the ground is part of the game, and he's terrified. So he wants me to be like, 'Oh, OK, I'm going to stand and bang with you.'"
St-Pierre's age (36) and four-year layoff have raised endless speculation on how much fight he has left and what he'll bring to the Octagon in his return. But he's sure he'll raise eyebrows and drop jaws come fight night - for all the right reasons.
"I'm much confident in this than I was before. I trained a lot of (aspects in my game) in the four years. People say you can't reinvent yourself, but I'm going to prove that you can, and I'm going to prove it to everybody. I'm not the same guy that I was before, the last time. I have a lot more tools … and I'm specialized in different things. I have a lot of new tricks that I'm going to bring to the game."
As for how he intends to make the brash Brit eat his words, St-Pierre all but guaranteed he'll have gotten his hand raised within the distance - something he hasn't done since taking his rematch with BJ Penn at UFC 94 well over eight years ago.
"I'm going to finish him, that's what I believe. Either a knockout or submission."