UFC president Dana White has been heavily critical of two-division world champion Georges St-Pierre over the years. He repeatedly disparaged the possibility of St-Pierre’s return prior to UFC 217 and continued to do so after the November 2017 fight, when the Canadian fighter decided to drop the middleweight title and get back to the sidelines due to a medical condition.
GSP had remained fairly silent throughout these years, until Monday’s episode of The MMA Hour, where he offered a lengthy response.
“If I would’ve lost, I would’ve lost big. It was a risk. I took the risk,” St-Pierre said (via MMA Fighting). “And Dana maybe is not happy about it, because he doesn’t control me. Maybe he’s used to dealing with people that he controls, but he does not control me.”
“I don’t depend on fighting. I don’t need the UFC to live. I have been there, done that, but I don’t depend on fighting. I have other stuff on the side that has nothing to do with the UFC, and I don’t need to fight for the rest of my life if I don’t want to.”
The 36-year-old St-Pierre says he is still very open to the possibility of making a UFC return once he fully recovers, and as long as he would be offered something that would greatly interest him.
“I need to wait for my condition, to see where my weight will be at and where my health will be at,” said St-Pierre. “I’m still on medication right now, so I can’t fight right now, as we (said), because I’m sure if I go back, even if I start feeling better, if I go back to fighting with the stress and everything, bang, I will probably go right back into it (feeling sick). So I need to wait a little bit, see how it feels. (I need) to be stable for a longer period of time.
“I’ve not closed the door (on my career). And also, I will have to think about what weight (I return at), at 185, 170, 155, what would be the weight,” he added. “I’ve won the title at 170 many times.”
“Doesn’t mean I cannot go back and try to go for the title, but for me, now that I’m at the end of my career, if I do something, it needs to be something that excites me, something that is a win-win situation that can elevate me. I’ve said it many times. I know I repeat myself, but it’s the truth.”
St-Pierre added that the ulcerative colitis that he contracted could have been because he tried to eat more to bring himself up in weight. As far as his current health status goes, he also revealed that the symptoms of the illness are gone, although he did “lose a lot of weight.”
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