Robert Whittaker Named UFC Middleweight Champion After Georges St-Pierre Vacates Title

Georges St-Pierre has vacated the UFC’s middleweight championship, one month after earning the title in a third-round submission against Michael Bisping at UFC 217.

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Interim middleweight champion Robert Whittaker has been elevated to the division’s official titleholder and will face Luke Rockhold in the main event of UFC 221 on Feb. 10 in Perth, Australia.

Whittaker (19-4) won the interim championship in July by defeating Yoel Romero via unanimous decision. The 26-year-old New Zealand native aggravated a knee injury in that fight and took the rest of 2017 off.

St-Pierre (26-2) is currently suffering from colitis, (an inflammation of the colon/digestive tract) and the 36-year-old Canadian said he does not want to hold up the UFC’s 185-pound weight class.

“My fight at UFC 217 was one of the greatest nights of my life, but I now need to take some time off to focus on my health,” St-Pierre said. “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.”

St-Pierre had taken a four-year break from active competition before defeating Bisping at New York’s Madison Square Garden on Nov. 4. He is now the first fighter to vacate a title in two different divisions, as he yielded his welterweight belt in 2013 before his hiatus. The 5-foot-10, 198-pound Canadian is also only the fourth fighter in UFC history to become champion in two different weight classes.

St-Pierre told TSN on Wednesday that he believes he got sick as a result of his move up to middleweight.

“After the fight, I thought first it was the stress that caused it and it would go away, but it did not go away,” St-Pierre said. “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.

The 33-year-old Rockhold (16-3), a former UFC champion, lost his title to Bisping at UFC 199 in June 2016. He is coming off a TKO victory over David Branch in September.

LAS VEGAS, NV – JULY 9: (L-R) Robert Whittaker punches Yoel Romero in their interim UFC middleweight championship bout during the UFC 213 event at T-Mobile Arena on July 9, 2017 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Rey Del Rio/Getty Images)