Georges St-Pierre believes Conor McGregor needs to get out of his comfort zone to return to his old championship form.
McGregor is coming off a second-round knockout defeat to Dustin Poirier in the UFC 257 headliner back in January. It was notably his second defeat in his last three outings inside the Octagon.
With a trilogy with Poirier seemingly slated for the summer, many observers believe McGregor no longer has the motivation and drive that he had before he became a multi-millionaire in the sport.
That seems to be the common excuse whenever McGregor underperforms these days, but it’s certainly a valid point that has been echoed by many in the combat sports world.
And St-Pierre — who knows a thing or too about fighting when you’ve made it to the top — is also in agreement as he feels McGregor needs to change his training habits.
“When I made my first million, of course my life has changed,” St-Pierre told ESPN (via MMA Fighting). “I had more security and I didn’t feel that I was fighting for the same reason that I was in the beginning in terms of security. When I was poor in the beginning, I was on the edge. I knew if I lost I would have been dead and my life would be a mess. When you get money, these things change.
“However, to keep performing, you need to get out of your comfort zone. You cannot stay in your comfort zone during a training camp because you’re trying to recreate the same element that you will face for a fight. When you’re gonna fight, you won’t be in your comfort zone, so it is imperative that Conor, if you want to get back on the road of success, he needs to get out of his comfort zone. He needs not to be the boss of his training camp. He needs his coaches to tell him now you’re gonna spar this guy, you’re gonna go there, do this. Even if it doesn’t please him, he needs to go through that. Because if you stay in your comfort zone, the only thing that can happen is you will go down. You need to do that.”
That said, credit must be given to Poirier for executing a flawless game plan against McGregor.
“We talk about Conor, but let’s talk about also Dustin Poirier,” St-Pierre added. “Poirier did amazing, let’s not take away the performance of Dustin Poirier, it was amazing. He deserved the win. Sometimes we have the tendency when someone is so dominant to only talk about how he didn’t look the same. We see that very often, also with Israel Adesanya and Blachowicz.
“Blachowicz in that fight, same thing, he surprised me. He showed how good he was. I was not expecting to see, I didn’t know how good he was, same thing with Dustin Poirier, I didn’t know how good he was.”
Do you agree with GSP?