GSP is doing exactly what 99.9% of all fighters are trying to do, make MONEY and do what is best for himself, his future, his family, etc.
The UFC is the problem here. Not Georges, not Conor. Every fucking fighter wants to make as much money as possible without ruining their health and quality of life if possible.
It is the UFC's job to preserve the integrity of their titles, to keep things at least somewhat fair and honest.
Let's not forget that WME/Ing/abc/wtf/fml has only been running the company a short time and wasn't an experienced MMA company beforehand. The Fertitas were very very fucking good at running the UFC. They were respected, they are literally gangsters and as far as I know they weren't 4 billion dollars in debt and desperate. Most importantly Zuffa always made sure that the "UFC" was the big name, that no fighter ever became a bigger star than the show itself... all that has changed.
WME has shown that they seem to think very short term. They want big fights right now. They don't seem to make decisions based on the integrity of the division or of the title. They are creating interim titles like it is going out of style. They made an interim FW title at UFC 210 just to try to boost ticket sales when DC pulled out of the event, one of several interim titles given out while the champion wasn't even injured for a long time.
Their retarded decisions have destroyed the integrity of the titles in the UFC. They chose to make a buck short term rather than to protect the value of their titles.
I don't blame fighters for trying to get paid. They risk health and sacrifice quite a lot to be fighters. They have a very short period of time in which to make money, they have no pension that I am aware of, they can't even make any real sponsor money for fights anymore. They need to make as much money as they can while they have the opportunity to do so.
Blame the UFC. This is their mess.
** (If he did lie and never intended to defend, I don't like that, but I don't know if that is the case. I think GSP might have fought Whittaker if he stayed healthy, as Whittaker is a former WW and not as massive as some of the other top guys.)