If UFC President Dana White‘s hunch proves correct, MMA fans will see the promotion’s former welterweight champion, Georges “Rush” St-Pierre, back inside the Octagon sooner than later.
During the UFC’s “The Time is Now” press conference Monday, White said he is “very confident” that St-Pierre will return to fighting before officially hanging up the gloves.
“Lorenzo (Fertitta, UFC chairman and CEO) and I went up and met with him up in Canada, and he’s getting back into training,” White said. “As soon as he’s ready to fight, he’ll let us know, but I’m very confident he’s coming back.”
St-Pierre twice won the UFC’s welterweight champion, and he is the winningest 170-pound champ in promotional history.
During his second run as champ, GSP defended his title nine consecutive times, tearing through the division and becoming one of the sport’s biggest stars in the process.
In his last fight before announcing his hiatus from the sport, however, St-Pierre was taken to the edge of defeat by current welterweight king Johny “Bigg Rigg” Hendricks. While the Canadian superstar usually had no problem taking his challengers to the ground and working his smothering, technical top game, Hendricks had other plans, defending three of six takedowns and battering the champ on the feet.
Big Rigg outstruck GSP 142 to 125 in total strikes but secured just two takedowns to St-Pierre’s three and landed 85 significant strikes to St-Pierre’s 101, metrics that eventually led to his split-decision loss.
While St-Pierre won the fight statistically, there is no doubt that it was an incredibly close contest, and many fans and experts gave Hendricks the nod.
After that fight, St-Pierre said he needed to take a break from the sport, leaving a hole in the welterweight division that Hendricks has filled for the time being.
If White’s confidence pans out, however, St-Pierre is coming back, and he’ll undoubtedly have only one goal in mind: getting his gold back.
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