On the eight-year anniversary of his unanimous decision, UFC welterweight title defence against Nick Diaz, former two-weight champion, Georges St-Pierre has claimed he’s burdened by the fact that’s never “made peace” with the Stockton native following their “personal” March 2013 battle.
St-Pierre, who has yet to feature in the Octagon following a hiatus snapping return at UFC 217 back in November of 2017, has been continuously linked with returns to professional mixed martial arts, with the often floated ‘superfight’ with current lightweight gold holder, Khabib Nurmagomedov continuing to rumble in the background.
Snapping a four-year stint on the sidelines at the Madison Square Garden event in late 2017, St-Pierre returned in a main event title challenge against then-undisputed middleweight kingpin, Michael Bisping — stopping the polarizing veteran with a third round rear-naked choke to become a two-weight UFC champion.
Leaving the promotion in less than ceremonious circumstances back in November of 2013, St-Pierre narrowly edged out former welterweight titleholder, Johny Hendricks to lodge his ninth successful title defence, before vacating his championship, claiming he needed to take some time off away from mixed martial arts, with UFC president, Dana White openly criticizing the Canadian’s decision to walk away from the sport. White infamously detailed how St-Pierre owed the UFC, Hendricks, the fans, and the welterweight championship another fight.
Recently claiming how he hated fighting professionally, St-Pierre spoke with ESPN MMA reporter, Ariel Helwani recently, reflecting on his “business” versus “personal” clash with former WEC and Strikeforce champion, Diaz, noting how he’s been bothered by the fact he never “made peace” with the outspoken Californian.
“Well, it felt to me — it’s not really the fight, it felt like I never made peace with Nick Diaz,” St-Pierre said. “And it’s a little bit unfortunate in the way that I feel — I feel like he took that (fight), not only like a business, he took it like very personal. For him, a fight was very personal. But for me it was very (like) business, you know what I mean?“
“And I never had a chance to see Nick Diaz after we fought, but if I ever cross path with him, I’ll go see him and shake his hand, and say, ‘Hey man, I don’t hold any grudge. I hope you don’t as well.’ Maybe he’s going to want to fight me, I don’t know what he feels. But to tell you the truth, I just like to have some form of camaraderie with my opponents because we share a moment — we make money and we share a moment, and we have a moment. And for me, he’s one of the guys that I never had a chance to talk with after the fight, and I feel like it’s missing a little bit in my life.“