Georges St-Pierre gave up everything to be a UFC champion, and according to Ronda Rousey, it would be unreasonable for people to expect him to do more.
The UFC women’s bantamweight champ seems a bit irritated that people are still giving St-Pierre grief over his decision to vacate the UFC welterweight title and go on an indefinite hiatus.
During the media conference call for UFC 168, Rousey was spot-on in her defense of St-Pierre, who recently broke the record for most time spent in the Octagon:
Georges had just passed the record for the most time ever spent in the Octagon, like actual time. So he just broke a record. No one else has spent that much time in the Octagon as him ever before. Can you really blame him for feeling like he was done? Because no one else had reached that point yet.
So I don’t think it’s really reasonable to expect him to do more. If he wanted to do more, that’s awesome, break that record even more. But if he feels like he’s done, that’s fine man, be done. Go rest, you deserve it. You don’t have to risk your life for anyone.
St-Pierre’s head trainer, Firas Zahabi, told Ariel Helwani on Monday’s episode of The MMA Hour that St-Pierre had been contemplating leaving MMA for over a year, but the decision kept getting pushed back with every new challenge.
After St-Pierre defeated Carlos Condit in November 2012, the opportunity to fight Nick Diaz came along. It was a dream fight that was literally years in the making. There was no way St-Pierre could walk away from a fight of that magnitude, especially with Diaz constantly calling him out in interviews.
St-Pierre took the Diaz fight, and after defeating him, the retirement talks began to rumble again. It didn’t take long before Johny Hendricks’ name crept into the picture, and fans called for St-Pierre to step up and take another big fight.
As he had done so many times before, St-Pierre took the fight with Hendricks and earned a controversial split decision victory in without a doubt the toughest fight of his MMA career.
Despite all of this continued sacrifice, the general public still holds out its hand wanting more.
Being a UFC champion is both a life-altering reward and a burdensome curse. There are many perks that come along with wearing the gold strap, such as big paydays, more exposure and hordes of other opportunities you could only dream of.
The goodies that come along with being a champion mask its only damning consequence: It never ends.
It’s already hard enough training for a regular three-round fight. Try preparing for a five-round championship bout. In his time in the UFC, St-Pierre has trained for and competed in 15 title bouts.
Right now, fans want to see St-Pierre do the rematch with Hendricks. After that fight, it’ll be Hector Lombard, Robbie Lawler, Tyron Woodley or Condit. There will always be another big fight for St-Pierre to take as long as he remains champion.
St-Pierre has been champ for over five years, and it’s well within his right to make the decision to walk away and attempt to live a normal life.
It’s only reasonable.
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