UFC legend Georges St-Pierre has dropped the middleweight title he won from Brit hero Michael Bisping just a month ago due to illness.
The Canadian icon ended a four-year MMA exile to choke the count out on November 4 but Robert Whittaker has been named champ and will defend against Luke Rockhold at UFC 221 on February 10.
GSP – who is suffering from ulcer colitis – said: “My fight at UFC 217 was one of the greatest nights of my life but I now need to take some time to focus on my health.
“Out of respect to the athletes and the sport, I don’t want to hold up the division.
“I will be giving up my belt and once I’m healthy I look forward to working with the UFC to determine what’s next in my career.
“After the fight, I thought first it was the stress that caused it and it would go away, but it did not go away.
“So what happened is even after the fight it persisted and I knew something was wrong so I let a few days pass by and after that I went to see a specialist.
“And I’ve been diagnosed with colitis, ulcer colitis, but now I have the medication and since I started medication it goes very well. So I’m almost 100-percent now.
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“I feel much better now than before and also it’s a lot less blood so it’s good.
“It was a more scary and stressful situation for me than the actual reality.
“There’s different levels of colitis, I don’t think mine is very severe. Some people are stuck in a situation where it’s more severe and it can affect their well-being much more, but mine is not that bad.”
Whittaker won interim middleweight title against Yoel Romero on 8 July 2017 at UFC 213 when Bisping was struggling with a knee injury and unable to compete.
Rockhold was left with a horror injury after his last fight but is ready and fit to compete for the title again.
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