Upon winning the middleweight title at UFC 217, Georges St-Pierre was contractually obligated to fight interim champion Robert Whittaker for his first title defense. Instead, St-Pierre decided to vacate the title, stating he would rather focus on his health first than hold up the division.
It is a fight that Whittaker apparently was looking forward to, and he admits the moment the mere possibility of it was finally killed off disappointed him a little bit.
“Yeah, it was (disappointing), because I wanted to fight Georges out of respect more than anything,” Whittaker told Submission Radio.