Octagon icon Georges St-Pierre is tired of seeing fighters trying to follow in the footsteps of Conor McGregor.
There’s no denying that the Irish megastar has made a massive imprint on the sport of mixed martial arts. Whether or not he ever steps foot inside the cage again, McGregor will likely go down as the organization’s top star and one of the most influential fighters in MMA history.
Unfortunately, McGregor’s cocky demeanor and trash-talking persona have led many younger fighters to try and emulate the Irish megastar in hopes of capturing the same lighting in a bottle that he caught a decade ago.
Thus far, nobody has come close outside of Colby Covington who created his obnoxious Trump-loving ‘Chaos’ character as a means of saving his own job. Even then, Covington has come nowhere close to earning McGregor-level money or crossing over into other avenues of entertainment.
It did however earn him a trio of UFC title opportunities, two of which he undeniably earned with his mouth more than his skill inside the cage. Of course, Covington fumbled all three opportunities and looks to be running low on fans following another humiliating loss against Joaquin Buckley in December.
As for the next generation of UFC talent, St-Pierre offered a word of advice for the up-and-comers, suggesting that they give up their dreams of being the next Conor McGregor and instead focus on being one of a kind.
“A lot of the new generation, they watch Conor McGregor because he made a lot of money being a good trash talker and this is who he is, he’s very good at it,” GSP said on the Geeking Out with Matt Serra podcast. “I think some people, they try to create a character around them and it shows that it’s not authentic…If you stay authentic to who you are, I think it’s more charismatic than if you are trying to play someone that you are not. I think it shows at some point” (h/t Sportskeeda).
Unlike Conor McGregor, GSP preferred to do his talking inside the octagon
St-Pierre officially ended his UFC career in 2017 after beating Michael Bisping to become a two-division world champion. Along the way, ‘Rush’ never engaged in the type of trash-talk that runs rampant on social media and at press conferences today.
Sure, part of that is because English wasn’t St-Pierre’s first language, but also because it just wasn’t his style. He was much more interested in being authentic and letting his fists do the talking.
“I just stayed authentic to who I am. And I didn’t need to trash talk because first, English is not my first language and it’s also just I’m not good about it. I do my talking in the octagon.
St-Pierre walked away from the sport with a 20-2 record inside the Octagon, his only losses coming against Matt Hughes and Matt Serra. He would go on to avenge both of those defeats during his tenure as a two-time welterweight titleholder.