Former UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre suffered a torn ACL in his left knee this week, an injury which effectively precludes St-Pierre from any immediate comeback to the sport he dominated for the better part of a decade.
“Just got confirmation that I tore my left knee ACL during training this week. Surgery in a few days and rehab starts right away,” St-Pierre announced on his Facebook page.
“We all face challenges in our lives and I know only one way to take this one: Pain, hard work, no shortcuts and I will soon be back at 100%. Stay tuned and thanks for your amazing support, as always.”
St-Pierre suffered a sprained MCL in the same knee back in mid-2011. The injury forced him out of a planned UFC 137 title defense against Nick Diaz, and ultimately led St-Pierre to tear his right ACL in December 2011 due to what he described as overcompensation.
St-Pierre eventually returned to full health and added three more successful title defenses to his record-breaking seven-year run atop the UFC welterweight division.
However, in December 2013, at the age of 32, St-Pierre vacated his belt and left the sport of mixed martial arts for an indefinite length of time, citing undisclosed personal issues as well as a distaste for what the legendary Canadian believed to be lax drug testing regulations within MMA.
“The system is not in place,” St-Pierre recently explained on The MMA Hour. “There are no guidelines. The way they test now, it’s not good. It’s not good the way they test. If you get caught on steroids right now, it’s because you’re very disorganized. It’s so easy to beat the test. It’s ridiculous. It’s not a real test.
“There needs to be random testing by an independent organization that has no interest in the money for the fight. That’s how it should be done. That’s how it is in any other sport.”
St-Pierre’s manager Rodolphe Beaulieu and trainer Firas Zahabi did not immediately return messages left by MMAFighting.com.
Average recovery time from surgery to repair a torn ACL can stretch anywhere from six months to a year.