four fights. While on SportsCenter, Dana White confirmed that St-Pierre would make his return against UFC Middleweight Champion Michael Bisping sometime in 2017. On May 11, 2017, Dana White announced the fight had been canceled. The UFC and Bisping had wanted to have the fight at early July's UFC 213 but St-Pierre announced on his Instagram page that he had an eye injury and difficulty moving up a weight class would prevent him from fighting until November. During the post-fight conference at late July's UFC 214, Dana White stated the fight was back on. White had intended for St-Pierre to fight current UFC Welterweight Champion Tyron Woodley. However White was critical of Woodley's performance in his last two fights and with Robert Whittaker, Bisping's next intended opponent, medically suspended until January 2018, White decided to return to the original plan. The pairing with Bisping took place in the main event of UFC 217 on November 4, 2017, nearly four years since UFC 167, when GSP last fought. St-Pierre defeated Bisping via technical submission in the third round to become the Middleweight Champion and the fourth person in UFC history to become a champion in multiple divisions. This win earned St-Pierre his first Performance of the Night bonus award. St-Pierre's return to the octagon set the record for the Canadian pay-per-view market, surpassing the Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor boxing match from August 2017. St-Pierre's win earned him the praise of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. On December 7, 2017, St-Pierre announced that he was vacating his UFC middleweight title after 34 days of holding the belt. Suffering from ulcerative colitis, St-Pierre wanted to avoid holding up the middleweight division. After his win at UFC 223, UFC Lightweight Champion Khabib Nurmagomedov called out St-Pierre as his first title defense later in the year. St-Pierre declined, stating again that he was not medically fit to compete. In June, it was leaked that the UFC was attempting to book St-Pierre against Nate Diaz as the co-main event at UFC 227. St-Pierre confirmed he had been approached but declined by saying a match-up against Diaz did not interest him. In August, St-Pierre announced he was looking to return at the end of the year and was interested in dropping down to lightweight and fighting the winner of Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor. Dana White said St-Pierre would not be fighting the winner of Nurmagomedov