At UFC 217, one of the greatest of all time made his return to the Octagon after a four-year hiatus.
When talking in the context of Jon Jones vs Tom Aspinall, Georges St-Pierre acknowledged that no one beats time.
That didn’t stop ‘Rush’ from jumping right back in at the deep end for one last dance when St-Pierre submitted Michael Bisping at Madison Square Garden in 2017.
By 2013, St-Pierre had already won the welterweight title back after losing it in shocking fashion before seeing off nine consecutive challengers.
His decision to come back after initially stepping away whilst he was still on top ended up producing a short-lived run but retirement isn’t something that decided on in the heat of the moment.
Georges St-Pierre says that he was already prepared for life after fighting despite his short-lived return
MMA retirements rarely go to plan and whilst Georges St-Pierre did come back from a four-year break in his career, he has stuck to his word since calling time on his career.
If he had left the sport back in 2013 after beating Johnny Hendricks at UFC 167, he would’ve walked away with an honorable retirement where he left on his own terms whilst he was still at the top of the sport.
In the end, his final fight being his return to the Octagon where he won the middleweight title ended up being an even better ending but it wasn’t supposed to go this way.
St-Pierre vacated the 185-pound belt just over a month after he won it due to health concerns which meant that he would end up holding the division by not fighting.
His move to middleweight had caused him to suffer from ulcerative colitis and after overcoming his issues, he officially retired in 2019.
In a recent exclusive interview with Bloody Elbow, St-Pierre commented on his retirement after Joe Rogan said that the former two-weight champion is the best example of a fighter going about this the right way.
He joked that his short-lived UFC return, “p—– off everyone, especially Dana White,” but he doesn’t have regrets about how his career ended even if it didn’t go to plan because he was already prepared for that chapter to come to an end.
“You have to prepare before it happens and I retired with a smile. I mean at that time when I retired, I had ulcerative colitis. I had bad symptoms and I didn’t want to hold the belt because I think it’s disrespectful for the other competitors so I needed to make sure, to know what I wanted to do so I relinquished the belt so the other guys had a chance to fight for it.
“Fighting is not who I am, it’s what I used to do. Of course, I made peace with it. I will probably never feel that rush of adrenaline, that feeling of winning a fight, it’s crazy addicting, but I have to get some of that competitive edge that I need, to put it in other things.”
Georges St-Pierre would return to competition under one condition
Despite outlining that he isn’t just a fighter, Georges St-Pierre would like to compete again if the right opportunity falls into his lap.
‘GSP’ was set to compete in the UFC Fight Pass Invitational in December of 2023 but an injury forced him to withdraw from the grappling match.
St-Pierre told Bloody Elbow that if something comes together where it’s a fun matchup that’s for a good cause, he would step back onto the mats now that he’s healthy again.
“I’m trying to get back 100%. If it’s for a good cause, I mean I would never fight again in mixed martial arts, trying to prove I’m the strongest man, this is over. But, if it’s for an event like a special event, maybe a charity involved, for the fans something fun like grappling, the risk of injury are minimized. I still like to compete but for different reasons. Maybe not, I don’t close the door on that.”