Fighters need to see their own careers as less of a treehouse and more of a brick-and-mortar business.
That’s according to Georges St-Pierre, the semiretired former UFC welterweight champ, who believes too many MMA competitors aren’t careful enough about how they manage their professional lives and who they choose to help them do so.
St-Pierre made the comments to fellow ex-fighter Chael Sonnen on Sonnen’s “You’re Welcome” podcast (h/t Dave Doyle of MMA Fighting).
“You need to see your career as a business,” St-Pierre said on the podcast. “I’m not qualified; I’m not competent for business because I’m a martial artist. I am competent to fight. So when it is time to negotiate deals or deal with my taxes or lawyer, I’m hiring the best people, the people I could find most competent for the job.”
One of MMA history’s most successful fighters both in and out of the cage, St-Pierre (25-2) indicated many in the sport choose people they like (or at least already know) to handle different aspects of their careers, which may come at the expense of the fighter’s professional well-being.
“I don’t try to do this stuff myself or to pick one of my friends. A lot of fighters, they got caught up in those kind of things, and I did myself as well…The problem, when you are going up, you have a lot of fake friends, a lot of people who tell you ‘you can trust me,’ and this and that,” St-Pierre said. “It happened to me. I’m not better than anyone else. I got my share of mistakes as well. But I got lucky.”
On this front, St-Pierre can speak from negative as well as positive experience. After announcing in late 2013 that he would “step away” from the sport for an indeterminate amount of time, information emerged that St-Pierre was in ongoing legal conflict with Shari Spencer, a manager with whom he parted ways in 2011.
The former champ was on a 12-fight win streak when he defeated Johny Hendricks by a close decision at UFC 167 and subsequently walked away from the sport, vacating his title.
GSP recently returned to training after recovering from a knee surgery, but there are still no concrete plans for a return to professional MMA competition.
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