This week, Goliath had the chance to attend the exclusive Canadian launch of Arms, a brand new fighting game for the Nintendo Switch. Since the game is essentially a futuristic boxing match, Nintendo fittingly held the event at a mixed martial arts training center in Toronto, OpenMat MMA. To crank up the star power, legendary UFC welterweight Georges St-Pierre was on-hand to take part in the Arms tournament with various members of the media.
Sadly, the Goliath team couldn’t pull out a win in the tournament itself (although I did make it to the semifinals). St-Pierre faced off against the eventual Arms champion, but the former UFC champ also lost, which means I don’t feel so bad anymore.
After the tournament, I got a chance to speak with GSP about the new game, whether he’s still aiming to fight Michael Bisping, and his thoughts on a potential Anderson Silva superfight.
On losing in the Arms tournament final (which I joked was his competitive loss since 2007):
“Yes, it was. It hurt. I might need a psychologist to gain my confidence back.”
On whether Michael Bisping will gain any confidence knowing that GSP lost (another joke):
“Well, that’s pretty much the only thing he can gain. After that, it’s going to be zip. I’m going to take everything.”
On Dana White telling everyone the Bisping fight was off:
“Dana and I talked two days ago, and I feel confident that it was a good talk and it will happen, yes.”
On the Yoel Romero vs. Robert Whittaker interim middleweight title fight at UFC 213:
“I see Whittaker having the edge. I think he has a good fighting style. I think he is a hard worker and has the right style to beat Romero.”
On beating Michael Bisping and potentially unifying the middleweight titles in 2018:
“I’m only focusing on one person at a time. I’m focusing on Michael Bisping and maybe that fight will happen and maybe it won’t. But I’m only worried about Bisping right now.
On a potential return to welterweight:
“Could be, after the fight, depending how things go. Things change rapidly in MMA. I want to re-write a page in the mixed martial arts history book. I will always go for the biggest challenge.
On the much anticipated Anderson Silva superfight:
“I won’t say no, that it couldn’t happen, but the situation with Silva is different now. He’s not a good roll right now. For me, I came back to do something big. He’s a very big name and the fight could have happened many years ago, but it didn’t. I wanted it back when I was smaller, but now I’ve gained weight. I wanted it to happen at a catchweight with VADA (Voluntary Anti-Doping Association), but they didn’t have the USADA drug testing program back then. Things were much different.
“Never say no, though. Silva could come back and beat a few guys and his stock gets high again. Then, we’ll see.”