'He doesn't want to fight anybody at welterweight': Dana White doubtful of Georges St-Pierre's UFC future

UFC president Dana White is doubtful of Georges St-Pierre's MMA future after he vacated the middleweight title and in addition, may not return to his old welterweight division either.

St-Pierre became just the fourth fighter to win a title in different divisions after he returned from a four-year hiatus to submit Michael Bisping on 4 November at UFC 217 and become the middleweight champion.

The 36-year-old was expected to face Robert Whittaker next, who became the interim middleweight champion back in June. This was all the more expected after White made it mandatory in his contract for "GSP" to face Whittaker, should he win the belt.

However, there was no update on a potential title unification fight following the event and news recently emerged that St-Pierre would be sidelined indefinitely after being diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, a potentially serious condition.

He would later vacate his belt, as many had previously predicted, with Whittaker promoted to unified middleweight champion as the Australian will now defend his title against Luke Rockhold at UFC 221 in Perth.

White was not surprised that the French-Canadian vacated the title but also revealed an interesting bit of information that St-Pierre was not willing to return to his old welterweight division, putting his UFC future in doubt.

"At the end of the day, there's a reason I put that stuff in the contract for him to sign," White said following UFC Fresno on Saturday (9 December).

"There's a reason. Am I shocked? I don't think anybody's shocked. He came out, he hand-picked [Michael] Bisping and went away again. Whatever. It is what it is.

"He doesn't want to fight anybody at welterweight. That's why he fought Bisping. He didn't want to fight [Tyron] Woodley. He didn't want to fight [Stephen] 'Wonderboy' Thompson. He didn't want to fight any of those guys. He wanted to fight Michael Bisping and he did and now he's off again."

White added that he thought he would be angry with St-Pierre for going against him and his contract, but claims he is at peace with the sequence of events as he had expected it.

"Listen, I'm not shocked. I'm not mad. It is what it is," White added. "I thought I would be [pissed] but I'm not. I expected it.

"I had him sign a contract saying that he would defend against [Robert] Whittaker for a reason. Because I knew he wouldn't."