After several months of speculation, which seemed to be leading to the announcement of his long-awaited return, former UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St-Pierre threw the MMA world a curve ball this week.
During a recent “Undeniable with Joe Buck” interview, St-Pierre opened up about his battle with obsessive-compulsive disorder and how no longer enjoying MMA led to his decision to walk away from the sport following a close decision victory over Johny Hendricks a couple of years ago.
“The last two or three fights, I didn’t have fun. I did it because I had to, not because I wanted to and I had too much pressure, too much criticism, too much things for too long and it’s very hard when you’re world champion, all your life is directed (on that). Especially for me with my obsessive-compulsive disorder, I wanted to be the best in the world so everything I do, it’s directed on that. That’s all that mattered for me. I needed to step out of if to have a normal social life. To take a mental break of all that.”
GSP also revealed that the business side of the sport influenced his decision, explaining how financial factors were also part of the overall equation.
“The thing that happened, when I first started doing this sport in the beginning I didn’t have any money. I was doing it for the love and the passion of the sport. I really liked what I was doing. It was money, but I was not a wealthy person and I was doing it for the fun. Then the fun became a business. It became a lot of money and business involved, other kinds of problems that comes with that. (Notorious) BIG, the rapper said ‘more money, more problems’, which is true. So the fun became a business and the business became stressful. The stress became the brick that I’m carrying on my shoulder all the time. I decided to take that brick and put it down and try to step out of the sport instead of try to carry it as long as I can and maybe lose a fight and get beat up bad.”
Following comments in recent reports from legendary boxing trainer Freddie Roach and his longtime trainer and friend Firas Zahabi, both of whom spoke as if a GSP return was on the horizon, the former 170-pound king admitted that he had been in talks with the UFC about a potential return. Ultimately, however, “Rush” appears to be determined to focus on his personal happiness over his professional ambition at this stage in his life and career.