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Georges St-Pierre celebrates his middleweight title win against Michael Bisping at UFC 217. Photo: AP

UFC: Georges St-Pierre open to Octagon return … but only for ‘something drastic’

  • Former UFC welterweight and middleweight champ GSP says he feels shadowed by rumours of a second comeback every day of his life
  • The 39-year-old legend is ‘satisfied’ with his career as he heads into Hall of Fame but insists he will ‘never say never’

Georges St-Pierre says he is shadowed by rumours of a return to the Octagon, every single day of his life, but the UFC great is sticking to retirement. For the time being. Maybe.

“I’m 39 years old now but a lot of the young guys I train with they always ask me ‘Hey Georges, tell me the truth. You’re coming back, aren’t you?’ And I say “No, no’,” laughs St-Pierre.

“You never say never but in order for me to come back it would have to be a 180 degree turn. Something drastic. A fight that I really want.”

At this exact moment in time, St-Pierre doesn’t have a specific opponent in mind. And he doesn’t seemed to be concerned, either, as he embraces retirement and a daily routine that in these recent, virus-enforced days of isolation have included his daily workouts, but also “lot of cleaning and cooking and training, sleeping, reading”.

St-Pierre says it took 15 years of combat, two UFC titles and an overall record of 26-2 before he finally felt satisfied with what he had achieved.

It was a feeling that also spelt the end of his Hall of Fame career.

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“A fighter should never be satisfied,” explains the Canadian, speaking to the Post from his home in Montreal. “When you are satisfied, that’s when it is dangerous, to get hurt, to lose. In an extreme sport like MMA when you are satisfied then it’s the end.”

And so St-Pierre walked away from the Octagon after choking out Michael Bisping (30-9) to win the UFC’s middleweight crown on November 4, 2017.

In the weeks surrounding that bout – his first since walking away from the sport as welterweight champ in 2013 – St-Pierre had been plagued by ulcerative colitis, and he soon vacated his new belt to concentrate on those health issues.

 

Word of a possible return has shadowed St-Pierre’s every move since, with fans being buzzed by the possibilities of a return against Nate Diaz (20-12) or even down among the lightweights against Russian Khabib Nurmagomedov (28-0).

Those flames were rekindled on May 9 when the UFC announced the Canadian would this year be immortalised in the organisation’s Hall of Fame.

“But for me, right now, I am very satisfied with what I have done,” is how St-Pierre politely draws a line under the conversation.

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This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: UFC legend will never say never to return
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