The underdog status is an unfamiliar place for UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre, but he doesn’t appear to be objecting to it. GSP recently told CSN Washington he believes if Diaz defeats Carlos Condit tonight at UFC 143 and he and the Stockton-native square off, the interim champion will be the favorite.
“Absolutely, I will be the underdog,” said St. Pierre on The Fight Fix. “Everybody will be thinking I’m going to lose this fight. That’s perfect. That’s what I want. It’s perfect motivation for me.”
St. Pierre has been relegated in recent fights to telling audiences each new opponent he faces is miraculously the most dangerous test of his career. That’s typically fight promotion speak. But facing a ready Nick Diaz after an extended layoff from ACL surgery in the prime of his career, St. Pierre may well be right that Diaz will be regarded as the one to beat by oddsmakers as much as fans.
As for the ammunition Diaz’s less than glowing words about St. Pierre provide, the champion didn’t suggest he was taking them too much to heart. “I don’t think Diaz is a bad human being,” St. Pierre noted. “I just believe maybe he has problems with social skills. It’s not personal. He did say personal bad stuff about me, but I just hope we’re going to be able to fight each other. It’s gonna be good.”
The welterweight champion also responded to UFC welterweight contender Josh Koscheck’s hope that GSP never returns to MMA. “It doesn’t go well for Koscheck because my knee is doing better every week,” responded St. Pierre with a smile. “I will come back soon.”
The champion believes he could be back in the Octagon on an accelerated timeline. He’s rehabilitating his damaged knee aggressively and without much distraction. So little distraction, in fact, he is completely unaware of tomorrow’s Super Bowl, who is playing and what the hoopla is all about.
“I don’t know anything about football. I don’t even know who is in the final,” St. Pierre noted. “I hear so much about football and I’ve been rehabbing with a lot of football players and football fans. So, I’ll make sure the Super Bowl is on – because I’m in Vegas and I have to drive back to Los Angeles to continue my rehab – I’ll make sure I be on the road listening to some beautiful music while the game is on so I cannot hear about it.”
Despite being a professional athlete, St. Pierre confesses he’s “not a sports fan at all, either hockey or whatever. I don’t watch sports too much.”
“I’m more a nerd.”