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- All-time MMA great Georges St. Pierre says he didn’t enjoy fighting during his pro career.
- In a new interview with the official website of the UFC, he even said he’d cry before his early matches.
- What he did enjoy, though, was winning. Once the fighting was done and his hand was raised as a winner, tears would turn to laughter.
- “I did it because I loved to win, I loved the benefits of it, and I loved the freedom,” he said.
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Georges St. Pierre never really enjoyed fighting in the UFC and said he would even cry before the early matches in his career.
“I never liked to fight, and I’m not lying when I say it,” St. Pierre recently told the UFC website.
The Canadian wrestler finished his career in 2018 with a pro MMA record of 26 wins (eight knockouts, six submissions, and 12 decisions) against two losses – both of which he avenged.
A three-time UFC welterweight champion, St. Pierre posted victories B.J. Penn, Matt Hughes, Thiago Alves, Dan Hardy, Carlos Condit, and Johny Hendricks during his 170-pound campaign, took four years off in 2013 and then returned in 2017 to submit Michael Bisping, winning the UFC middleweight title.
The 39-year-old is widely considered one of the all-time greats in his sport but didn’t enjoy the time he spent in the Octagon.
"Never a second," he said. "I did it because I loved to win, I loved the benefits of it, and I loved the freedom.
"Back then, I was young, there was the money, the girls, the fame, the access to things nobody had. It was the freedom, that's why I did it. I never did it because I loved to compete and fight. I hated it to the highest level.
"It's so stressful that it was unbearable for me. However, I loved the rewards. The greater the risk, the bigger the reward, and that's why I did it, and I was very good at it and I took advantage of it.
"Now, I miss the rewards, I miss the feeling of winning. But I don't miss the feeling of fighting, not even a second."
St. Pierre found the prospect of fighting so stressful that he often cried before bouts early in his career.
"In my early fights, before the fight I would go to eat with my friend … and I was crying: 'This is my last one, I promise, I'm not made for this. I hate this stressful life.'
"And he was saying the same thing. Then after the fight, we'd look at each other when we won and were like, 'Yeahhhh, when is the next one? We love it.' How crazy is this? It's a very weird thing and I can't really explain it.
"I love it, but I hate it at the same time. It's a crazy lifestyle. The outcome could be so negative for your well-being, but the rewards of it are so great. It's a crazy gamble.
"It's like going all-in every time. I love training, I love the lifestyle, I love everything about it, but the night of the fight, it's very stressful and I don't miss that."
St. Pierre has been linked with another comeback - this time against Khabib Nurmagomedov
![Georges St Pierre and Khabib Nurmagomedov](https://www.businessinsider.nl/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/5ffca4b06cf04.png)
Photos by Frank Franklin II / Mahmoud Khaled / AP Photos
A match between the best from the past era at welterweight and the best of this era in lightweight, would pit St. Pierre, 39, against the current UFC champion at 155-pounds - Khabib Nurmagomedov.
It would be one of the greatest super-fights the UFC could make.
Even Javier Mendez, Nurmagomedov's head trainer, said St. Pierre would be the perfect opponent to retire on, before the Russian called the curtain down on his career with a dramatic, abrupt, and emotional statement in October, after he slept Justin Gaethje at UFC 254.
"I would like GSP," Mendez said before the Gaethje match in October. "I would say GSP would be my number one pick."
One of Nurmagomedov's closest friends Daniel Cormier, a UFC commentator and former two-weight UFC champion, agreed.
"That's the fight," Cormier said at a Fight Island media day last year. "Could you imagine the energy of a Khabib vs. Georges St. Pierre fight? With fans?
"This would be the unbelievable athlete from the generation prior versus the unbelievable athlete, unstoppable … from this [era]."
St. Pierre, though, did not mention a comeback in his interview with the UFC, nor did he mention Nurmagomedov.
Nurmagomedov also remains retired, but the UFC boss Dana White is hopeful he can talk the fighter into competing once again.
If White can make a comeback happen, it is unclear whether it would be against St. Pierre, Conor McGregor, or someone else.
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