Lumberjack loophole? Michael Bisping explains how Georges St-Pierre can weasel his way out of contracted title defense

Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre is finally making his return to mixed martial arts (MMA) after more than three years on the sidelines.

“Rush” won’t be returning at 170 pounds, much to the chagrin of this guy, but instead make a splash in the middleweight division, where St-Pierre faces Michael Bisping for “The Count’s” middleweight title.

One of the stipulations of that agreement forces the deposed king of UFC pay-per-view (PPV) buys to make at least one title defense; however, Bisping recently revealed how the popular French-Canadian can work around that problem via lumberjack loophole.

From his official podcast (via MMA Fighting):

“GSP is a big name and he brings the huge Canadian market with him and that’s what the UFC are after. They want all those Canadians to start buying the pay-per-views again. From what I’m hearing, pay-per-view sales in Canada haven’t been doing too well lately so they want GSP to come back and they want all those people, all those lumberjacks to start buying the Pay-Per-Views again. If, God forbid, he beats me, he has it in the contract that he has to fight Robert Whittaker. But he can retire. He can retire if he wants. They cannot force you to fight. So let’s say he was to say, ‘I retire’ and then say, ‘Hey, listen, I’ll come out of retirement to fight at 170 [pounds]. UFC, do you want to sell all those pay-per-views again, yes or no? It’s up to you.’ So really . . . one would assume that he can really do what he wants. They can’t force him to fight.”

The last time they tried, it ended poorly.

Bisping and St-Pierre will headline the upcoming UFC 217 PPV fight card scheduled for Nov. 4, 2017 inside Madison Square Garden in New York City, atop a line up that also included this championship title fight.

The winner is expected to face interim 185-pound titleholder Robert Whittaker, assuming “The Reaper” can heal up in time. Unless, of course, we have some sort of wacky outcome (or a draw) and all those lumberjacks demand an immediate do-over.

Stranger loopholes things have happened.