Georges St-Pierre, Michael Bisping and Dana White have been on a promotional tour this week hyping the upcoming UFC 217 and it appears they’re making a concerted effort to sell the fight to hockey fans.
On Friday the trio held a press conference at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto and Saturday night they stopped by the Bell Centre in Montreal to perform the ceremonial puck drop prior to the Maple Leafs taking on the Canadiens.
Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty and Maple Leafs centre Tyler Bozak took part in the ceremony.
St-Pierre is no stranger to appearing under the lights at the Bell Centre. The former welterweight champion, a native of Saint-Isidore, Que., has headlined four UFC events at the venue. He won the title there at UFC 83 in 2008 when he finished Matt Serra in the UFC’s first event in Canada. He then defended his belt there against Josh Koscheck in 2010, Carlos Condit in 2012 and Nick Diaz in 2013.
Bisping has fought at the Bell Centre twice, beating Charles McCarthy in his middleweight debut at UFC 83 and defeating C.B. Dollaway at UFC 186.
UFC 217 takes place Nov. 4 at Madison Square Garden in New York City with GSP challenging Bisping for the middleweight title in the main event.
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