GSP is a free man

"One of the things the UFC told him, GSP said, was that the promotion would have to "take a huge financial risk" to re-introduce him to the audience." - that's pretty BS from the UFC if true.
http://www.mmafighting.com/2016/10/17/13308064/georges-st-pierre-says-he-s-no-longer-under-contact-ufc-i-m-a-free

In other news, Kawajiri also wants out:
川尻達也tatsuya kawajiri Verified account ‏@CRUSHER_MMA

"After rounds of thoughts, I've asked to be released from the UFC. Plan for the future will be announced separately. Appreciate your support."

GSP is out, Aldo wants out, Kawajiri wants out, Rockhold begrudgingly renewed, Iaquinta quit; it's a brave new world for the UFC. There's clearly a lot of discontent with the way that the UFC is running things (Kawajiri probably just wants to fight for RIZIN).

* Edited at 10.17.2016, 4:33 PM ET *

Somewhat surprising piece of news getting lost in the GSP avalanche here is the fact that he believes they would have reached a deal with Lorenzo, but between Dana and the new management, there was no way it was going to happen. 

Relations between GSP and Dana seem extremely strained. Sounds like he was only interested in negotiating directly with Lorenzo. 

It probably doesn't happen, but GSP to Rizin would be so cool.

I'm figuring he goes to Bellator though, if not potentially both.

No association can offer GSP the millions he ask for... So he can continu to be a retired guys talking about return each 3 months.

"One of the things the UFC told him, GSP said, was that the promotion would have to "take a huge financial risk" to re-introduce him to the audience."


Do they actually believe everyone of their fans have only been watching MMA for the last 3 years?! That every single PPV order is made by a McGregor band-wagoner?




Clearly someone needs to read up on UFC 100 and 129. A GSP-return would be unreal!

maybe he can get some money fighting  Lucian Bute in Montréal or Grenady Golovkin in united-states in a boxing match...

Hypothetically, a promotion like Bellator wouldn't have to pay GSP quite as much as GSP was asking from the UFC, because GSP said he was only asking for so much because he couldn't have his sponsors. In Bellator or elsewhere, he'll be able to have whatever sponsors he wants. 

* Edited at 10.17.2016, 4:53 PM ET *

I think the UFC just dont want to pay GSP that kind of money, if they did Connor will be asking more than that for his next match and then everybody else. im NOT saying GSP or everyone else doesnt deserve it, its just the UFC doesnt want to write those checks. and they probably feeñl they dont need them because they have Conor and Rousey is coming back soon, both Diaz´s sell well too and the grass is green right now.

maybe they didnt learned their lesson of last year perhaps they think  2 stars are enough for the UFC. I don´t know
but this will certainly come back to bite them in the ass.  my Guess is that GSP goes to bellator with huge endorsements from sponsors, they have a few good matches over there, Page, Lima, Koreshkov Rory and Bendo at WW Sonen and Shlemenko at MW,

And he could make Bellator to agree to fight for other promotions too.

it could be interesting

HAHAHAHAHA **** the UFC

GSP/Fedor, just do it

That's a good point saying they don't need him as much because they're bringing Ronda back in the same month.

The UFC usually don't have two mega "must watch" PPV events in the same cable billing cycle. UFC 2001 was in the same month as UFC 200, but it really only offered the die hards a chance to watch Lawler fight.

Perhaps they'll revisit the notion of GSP returning in the next quarter after Conor and Ronda are both in between fights and the UFC is in a lull.  

The UFC has just made the biggest mistake of the WME-IMG ownership era.  They just gave Bellator their first star that could actually be a substantial draw on PPV.  Not only that, GSP could draw huge for RIZIN on their NYE event.  Couple this with the fact Jose Aldo wants out and that Anderson Silva wants out, and Bellator could start to get some serious traction.

As for Kawajiri, that is not overly surprising but still a bit of a shock.  I expect that he will fight for Sakakibara.

This sounds like a similar situation that landed Rampage in court with Bellator. It would be a mistake to let GSP walk though. But at the same time if he is really as serious about drug testing as he claims would he be hypocritical to fight in other organizations that don't have strict PED testing policies since that was the main reason he gave for leaving in the first place. It's also not like GSP needs in ring sponsors they will sponsor him regardless. Either way if he truly is a free agent like his lawyer claims he is the most valuable free agent in the history of MMA.

....and new lw/ww/mw/lhw/hw bellator champion of the world

@bigj

I don't think it is hypocritical, especially if it is the UFC blocking him from signing back on to the roster.  If GSP wants to fight, why would it be bad for him fight somewhere else if he being prevented from going back to the UFC?  I mean the guy entered his name in to the USADA testing pool and went through all the proper protocols.  Why would his reputation be tarnished if Dana is the one preventing him from going back to do his job? 

I don't think his reputation will be tarnished considering he has never tested positive ever. The only problem is  he made such a big stink about testing and demanding UFC up their game which directly led to USADA then to turn around and go with Bellator that does the legal minimum when it comes to testing or Rizin or One where I don't know if they test at all. It starts to look that it was more about money than PEDs all along. It's fine if he wants to get paid more. Get as much money as you can while you can. I guarantee GSP haters are going to point to USADA immediately if he signs anywhere else. GSP has always been one of my favorite fighters I would be happy to see GSP vs Koreshkov though we are talking probably a $5 million dollar price tag minimum for GSP.

If USADA shows up at his door tomorrow does he turn them away?

UFC just released a statement saying GSP is unequivocally not a free agent and is still under contract with the UFC. They have said they will honor his contract and they expect him to do the same.

lol!! The UFC using the dumbest negotiation tactics ever. Re-introduce him to the fans my ass, they could have a guy with 3 follower tweet that GSP's coming back and that **** would spread and he'd sell 1M PPV buys. ******* lame greedy ****s.

If there's anyone who has a case stating that the Reebok deal (which wasn't in place when he signed his contract) is losing him millions it's GSP. OF COURSE they need to renogotiate his contract and add a few zeros if they want him back and on board with Reebok!!

They're also being very stupid, their current only high draws on a roster of 800 fighters are Conor, who's unstable and losing his **** more and more with every day that goes by (I'm still his fan in-cage, but the dude's losing it, finding it harder and harder to relate to him) and Ronda, who's one loss away from retiring permanently (and sort of Jon Jones, but yeah, let's put our eggs in that basket).

A guy like GSP, who's a reasonable businessman, won't renogotiate his contract before every figfht (like Conor does), is a proven company man (even when he doesn't like the company) and a fantastic role model, dependable, you'd think would be important to them. 

What a bunch of hypocritical, lying *******! You'd need to re-indtroduce Dana before GSP you ******s!

@mikeyg

What makes you think Dana will have any chance of stopping GSP from walking out?  Litigation?  Dana is struggling to convince Jose Aldo from retiring/demanding his release (never mind keeping his golden goose Conor McGregor in line), and you think he will be able to stop GSP from walking out after all the **** Dana and company put him through when he was the main draw of the company?  The UFC has little to no leverage with negotiation and are in desperate need of names besides McGregor and Rousey (and Jon Jones to a lesser extent) for PPV buy rates, especially after UFC 200 became an absolute dumpster fire that did under the projected 2 million PPV buys and needed Brock Lesnar in order to just break the 1 million PPV buy mark (never mind matching UFC 100's PPV buy numbers).  I don't see how the UFC will be able to strong arm GSP into staying.

* Edited at 10.18.2016, 2:54 AM ET *