Georges St-Pierre announced on The MMA Hour last night that he was a free agent, after exercising a stipulation in his contract that allowed him to end his agreement with the organisation.
It was suggested that the length of time between booked fights was enough for his lawyers to find a way to terminate the agreement, but the UFC then released a statement that claimed the information provided was false.
Georges St. Pierre remains under an existing agreement with Zuffa, LLC as his MMA promoter. Zuffa intends to honor its agreement with St. Pierre and reserves its rights under the law to have St. Pierre do the same.
It's clear that both parties don't see eye to eye, but this isn't the first case of St-Pierre really winding up Dana White. On reddit and on other MMA forums after the news, fans have been discussing GSP and looking back on his strange decision to leave.
But having done so it becomes apparent that UFC 176 was the point where his relationship with Dana White broke down.
Having been previously spoken of as the biggest name in the sport, and the man who ruled the PPV ratings, Dana never spoke about St-Pierre in the same way again, and it's hard to imagine that this did not come into play when GSP was supposedly looking to have a fight booked.
The post-fight press conference was where we really saw how agitated White was. He believed that GSP owed both the fans, and Johny Hendricks, a re-match, and he couldn't believe the decision to announce his "time off" in the way that he did.
It wasn't just what GSP said, but also the decision from the judges that sparked that response. White was adamant that Hendricks won the fight, so in his eyes he felt that the biggest draw in MMA at the time was ducking the rematch.
It seems as though that grudge is still held, and thus we have this media standoff between both parties.
Clearly, GSP wants to fight again, and the fact that he is claiming that his contract with the UFC is over suggests that Bellator or another organisation are waiting in the wings to snap him up, something that would not be good for business over at UFC HQ.
And they don't like things that aren't good for business. More on this as it develops.
