Rory MacDonald: Georges St-Pierre is still training like an active fighter

UFC superstars seem to be dropping like flies these days. On Tuesday, former double champ and #1 PPV draw Conor McGregor announced his retirement over Twitter. Whether it’s a negotiating ploy or not remains to be seen, but the UFC has decided to take it at face value. And then there’s Georges St-Pierre (a close second to McGregor in total PPVs sold), who retired at the end of February after the UFC refused to even discuss a fight with Khabib Nurmagomedov.

Few thought GSP was bluffing, but in the heart of many a fan remains the hope that maybe, just maybe, the Canadian superstar may come back for another superfight. And while St-Pierre has removed himself from the USADA testing pool, he’s still keeping himself in fighting shape according to his friend and training partner Rory MacDonald.

”I’ve seen Georges, he’s still training and still improving,” MacDonald told TSN’s Aaron Bronsteter. “He’s living life, he’s good. But he’s doing all the same hard training. Like I’m training hard for a fight and I’ll show up at the track to do sprints and he shows up half an hour later to do his work.”

”The guy doesn’t slow down. He’s programmed for physical improvement. So he’s still gaining, even though he doesn’t have any competition to look forward to, he’s working hard. He is programmed differently, and that’s I think why he’s made the name for himself that he has.”

So just a message for the ESPN execs out there: if you need someone to push a ton of subscribers through the new ESPN+ paywall, we know a guy that could be ready on six months’ notice.

As for Rory, he’s set to return from a poor showing against Gegard Mousasi to compete in the Bellator Welterweight Grand Prix. That continues April 27th on DAZNAZN, where MacDonald will face UFC veteran and human blanket Jon Fitch. According to “The Red King,” this will be his chance to erase the memory of that loss to Mousasi.

”I felt that I wasn’t focused in the training camp leading up to it,” MacDonald explained. “I had some distractions in my life that took priority for whatever reason. And decided to go ahead and do the fight anyway and let the chips fall where they may. Obviously it was a good lesson for me. I didn’t enjoy seeing the way I went out there and performed and got absolutely squished.”

”I’ve lost in the past but I at least put up a hard fight in all my losses,” he finished. “And in this fight I kinda got steamrolled. It’s not something I’m proud about, and it motivates me going into this tournament to just remind everyone what I have inside.”