Former UFC welterweight and middleweight champion Georges St-Pierre was supposed to return to combat sports this year in a boxing match against Boxing Hall of Famer Oscar De La Hoya, before the UFC and more specifically, president Dana White got in the way of those plans.
St-Pierre has been retired from competition since beating then-middleweight champion Michael Bisping at UFC 217, getting the win by submission near the end of the third round in the main event. Before that, St-Pierre had been away from the sport he once dominated as the welterweight champion for four years, the same amount of time since he’s fought in the present.
St-Pierre is still technically under contract with the UFC despite leaving the promotion in 2017 but needed their permission to compete against De La Hoya. In a recent interview with MMA journalist Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour, St-Pierre explained why the fight between him and De La Hoya never came to be.
“I thought it would be a fun thing to do,” St-Pierre said. “My career to prove that I’m the strongest man in the world in the sport of mixed martial arts is done. But to do something different, something that could be fun and very motivating for me, and plus on top of that a lot of money would’ve been given to charity, against a legend in the sport like Oscar De La Hoya.”
“Lorenzo [Fertitta] liked the idea, but Dana [White] did not want it. I knew he hates Oscar but I said to him, ‘Listen, I’m going to make Oscar look bad because I’m in great shape. He thinks it’s because he doesn’t like the fact that Triller takes me and makes money off my back while I’m still under contract with UFC.”
It would’ve obviously been great to see St-Pierre get in the ring with De La Hoya, who ultimately vied to take a fight with another former UFC champion, Vitor Belfort.
While St-Pierre didn’t 100% rule out a future boxing match with De La Hoya or someone else who is notable, it doesn’t sound like it’ll be happening any time soon.
Do you think we’ll ever see Georges St-Pierre fight in the boxing ring?