George St-Pierre (GSP) widely regarded as one of the greatest fighters to ever step inside the Octagon. His career inside the cage spanned nearly fifteen years.
In his fifteen-year career, the Quebec based former UFC welterweight and middleweight champion compiled a record of 26-2. He fought some of the biggest names in the UFC including the likes of Michael Bisping, Johny Hendricks, Nick Diaz, BJ Penn, Matt Hughes, Matt Sera, etc.
GSP is still 38-years old, which in fighting years is old, but not unusual for the UFC or MMA in general. He announced his retirement last year after coming off of a submission win over Michael Bisping at UFC 217 in November of 2017.
Speaking to ESPN’s Ariel Helwani, GSP said that he has no plans of stepping inside the Octagon. There have been talks about GSP fighting Khabib Nurmagomedov, but the Canadian made it clear that he is happy in his retirement.
“I’m the happiest man in the world and I wouldn’t want to change my place with anyone else,” St-Pierre said. “To go back and do the same routine I did before, I’ve done it for so long, I don’t have the same motivation as I did before.”
“It would need to be a complete 180-degree turnaround,” St-Pierre said about his possible return. “It would not take me much to be in fight shape, I can still reach that… I just don’t know if I want to get back into it.”
“Sometimes when I’m in the gym or I watch a fight, sometimes I’m excited and I look at the fight and go, ‘man, I know I can beat these guys,’” St-Pierre said. “But then I wake up in the morning… I don’t want to go back into that stressful lifestyle.” (H/T – Sportsnet.ca)
GSP: ‘I put on a mask before a fight that it’s impossible for me to fail’
Throughout his fighting years, George St-Pierre was a dominant fighting machine. Since 2007, he went on a 13-fight winning streak inside the Octagon. He retired from the sport in 2013 after beating Johny Hendricks at UFC 167. But after a four-year hiatus, he came out of retirement and defeated Michael Bisping in a dominant fashion at UFC 217.
While GSP enjoyed tremendous success inside the Octagon, he doesn’t miss fighting. He said that the process involved and the feeling of anxiety during fight night. He said that he enjoyed winning inside the Octagon, but he never liked the grueling hours spent in training camp preparing for the fight.
“Most of the guys are different, maybe I am a coward…what I do before a fight is I put on a mask and I am pretending that for me it is impossible to fail. This is only a mask, this is not I truly feel inside, I am very very scared,” GSP said.
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