St-Pierre passed on multiple big money offers to face former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley, who says he would have ‘beat his brains in.’
Georges St-Pierre says he’s done with real fights, and we think we believe him after a new story from former welterweight champion Tyron Woodley.
St-Pierre was the UFC welterweight champion for nearly six years and defended his belt a stunning 9 times. Tyron Woodley’s reign was shorter — two years and four defenses, but he hoped beating GSP outside the UFC would give him a chance to prove his place in the conversation of great welterweight champions.
“Georges St-Pierre never wanted to fight me,” Woodley said in an interview with Plejmo. “I’ve asked Georges to fight me several times.”
“I had an opportunity to fight him last year and the year before,” he continued. “It was a five to seven million dollar purse and he said no. In MMA. My Middle East investor wanted the fight, seven million, but he said no. I would have beat his brains in.”
GSP’s last fight was a middleweight title win over Michael Bisping in 2017. In 2019 he officially retired from the sport after being unable to secure a fight against Khabib Nurmagomedov. Since then he’s been pretty consistent in his decision to stay retired, although he did almost box Oscar De La Hoya in 2021.
Unfortunately (or fortunately), St-Pierre was still technically under contract with UFC, who shut down the special rules boxing match. In November 2022, Georges announced he was officially a free agent but stressed he was done with serious fighting.
“I could do something, but it needs to be something well organized,” he said at the time. “And maybe something where the risks of injury are to the minimum, not something that’s too crazy because my days of competing are over.”
GSP walked away from the sport with a nearly pristine 26-2 record. Woodley is on a five fight losing streak, leaving UFC on a 0-3 skid and losing twice to Jake Paul in boxing. He still intends to return to MMA, although it’s unclear where he might compete.
The most recent near-match from the Canadian superstar was a UFC Fight Pass Invitational grappling match against Nick Diaz. St-Pierre blew out his rotator cuff training and was forced to withdraw from that, but recently revealed he’s back to 100%.
What could be next for the always-in-shape legend remains to be seen, but it sounds like it won’t be a Tyron Woodley fight.