There’s no doubt that former UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre wants to return to the world of MMA that he once ruled. However, getting back inside the Octagon is a challenge.
It was reported in August that St-Pierre was going to return at UFC 206 in Toronto, Canada, but that is not happening. Recently, St-Pierre announced that he was teaming up with Bjorn Rebney, Cain Velasquez, Tim Kennedy, T.J. Dillashaw, and Donald Cerrone to form the MMA Athletes Association (MMAAA). And now the legendary fighter says he is back in talks with the UFC to negotiate his return to the cage.
St-Pierre stated in a recent interview with TSN that the UFC reached out to him on the day he announced the formation of the MMAAA.
“No, no it doesn’t mean I’m done with the UFC. Like other members, like Cain Velasquez, Tim Kennedy, Cowboy Cerrone, they’re all seasoned fighters. Doesn’t mean I’m done. Actually, the night that we launched the association we received a letter, Rodolphe [Beaulieu] received a letter – my agent – from the UFC lawyer saying that they want to renew the negotiation with me because at the point where I was before the negotiation, the communication was cut. So we didn’t have any kind of communication.”
St-Pierre stated that until recently, he was still training to fight at UFC 206 because he thought the negotiations would work out and he’d be fighting again.
“The thing is, I was training until a very recent point. I was fighting, I was training to get ready for a fight in Toronto. I really thought it would have worked out and in case someone got hurt, they would have maybe called me or I thought maybe they would have called me at the last minute, just to take me off guard. I didn’t know. But one or two weeks ago I pulled the plug, I knew it was not happening. I was hoping earlier to get on the card for Toronto, but it’s not happening, and now I guess they’ll keep talking and we’ll see if they can come to an agreement. Same story as before but now I have more options. I’m [a] free agent. I don’t have to be in the UFC. I could go somewhere else.”
For those who are wondering if you might see St-Pierre at the UFC 206 event that takes place this weekend, he will in fact not be there but will be watching the event as some of his teammates are fighting on the card.
“I will not be there, but I remain a big fan. I’m gonna watch some of my teammates fighting on TV from my home, but I won’t be there, unfortunately. I wish I would have been there. The best place would be in the cage. I was hoping to get it done against Michael Bisping, and he was hoping it too, but unfortunately, the conditions that they were offering me for the contract were unacceptable. Any smart person would not have accepted it. A person who would have accepted it is scared and has no choice but I’m healthy, I’m wealthy, I have the choice. I don’t have to take something that is not advantageous for me. I mean equitable. Because now I was taking all the risk and it was not equitable.”
St-Pierre decided to take a break from MMA following his split decision victory over Johny Hendricks at UFC 167. During his MMA career, St-Pierre made nine successful title defenses and held an overall pro-MMA record of 25–2. Unfortunately, the fans will have to wait a bit longer to see “GSP” fighting once again.
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