Georges St-Pierre should not be underestimated if he decides to defend his title says Chris Weidman

Former middleweight champion Chris Weidman is confident that Georges St-Pierre will not continue fighting at 185 pounds.

St-Pierre (26-2 record in MMA) returned after a four-year layoff to submit Michael Bisping on 4 November at UFC 217 and become the middleweight champion.

Having previously revealed that if he wins, he would have to contractually defend his title against interim champion Robert Whittaker, "GSP" did not seem open to a match-up with the Australian following the event.

Weidman believes the French-Canadian champion will not continue fighting in the middleweight division, instead, predicting he will go back to his old welterweight division and face Tyron Woodley or even take part in a super fight with Conor McGregor.

"You have 'GSP' possibly fighting Whittaker, but no one really believes that's going to happen -- even though [UFC president] Dana White is swearing up and down about it," Weidman told ESPN.

"There's just no certainty about who's going to be champion in the next year in the UFC. Who am I going to be able to take the belt from? I guarantee you it's not gonna be 'GSP.'"

In the rare case that St-Pierre does end up defending his title against Whittaker, however, "The All American" says neither he nor any other middleweight should underestimate him despite the likely size advantage.

"[St-Pierre] does find a way to outsmart people," Weidman explained. "I'll never underestimate 'GSP.'"

"He's proved time and time again how good he really is and as much as I might think, looking how the other guys in the middleweight division are bigger and stronger and have different things than him, I won't underestimate 'GSP.' He can do it all."

Chris Weidman's road to regaining the middleweight title

Weidman (14-3 record in MMA) recently snapped a three-fight losing streak with his submission win over Kelvin Gastelum in July.

The 33-year-old was expected to face Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza next in his quest to regain his title, however, he suffered a hand injury in his bout with "KG" as he gave an update.

"My hand is going all right -- not great," Weidman added. "I'm not really sure how long it's going to be. I was with the UFC's physical therapist, and she was hoping maybe in two months I could be 100 percent. There's no telling. I guess it's a unique injury."

"Basically, they took the tendon out of my wrist to anchor my thumb into the socket because the ligament had torn. [The doctor] kind of did tell me, it's almost the equivalent of doing an ACL on a knee. I'm like, 'What? What happened to that six-week mark you were talking about?'"