GSP recently gave his thoughts on Jon Jones’ potential move to heavyweight, which got him thinking about his own journey up to middleweight.
In a recent interview with MMA Fighting, Georges St-Pierre got on to the topic of Jon Jones and his move to the heavyweight division. Many fans and pundits have been skeptical of ‘Bones’ and his ability to cut the mustard in his new weight class, but GSP was bullish on the idea saying that he recently ran into Jones at the UFC Hall of Fame, and that the longtime Jackson-Wink fighter was “solid like a rock,” and “looked huge.”
St-Pierre has had his own history of success traveling between divisions, winning the middleweight title in 2017 over Michael Bisping—after returning from a 4-year hiatus. Just because it worked well for the welterweight GOAT, however, doesn’t mean it’s a decision he’d recommend to just anyone. In fact, it seems he wouldn’t even recommend it to himself.
“I’ve done it the wrong way,” St-Pierre said of his transition up to middleweight in his recent interview with MMA Fighting. “I’ve tried to put on weight. I prepared myself a long time, I tried to eat and put on weight, but with the stress [on my body] it creates problems.
“If I would have to do it again, if I could come back and tell a younger Georges before he tried to put on weight, I would’ve told him to just stay the way [you were] at your natural weight, because you’re not going to have any health issues and you will perform even probably better. But certain guys have different abilities.
“I have a hard time putting on weight, that’s the way my body is; some guys, they can put on weight easier, depending on if you’re an endomorph, mesomorph, ectomorph. A lot of guys have different tools, different ways of doing it, and it’s easier for them.”
St-Pierre hasn’t competed in MMA since vacating the middleweight title shortly after his victory over Bisping. He recently revealed that, despite having not competed with the UFC for half a decade, he’s only just now out from under his contract with the world’s largest MMA promotion.
No word if that might mean a return to action for GSP sometime in the near future. A 2021 exhibition boxing match with Oscar De La Hoya was vetoed by the UFC. With celebrity boxing still very much in vogue, fans may just see the Canadian MMA legend back in action once more.