He may not fight him inside the Octagon, but that won’t stop UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley from wanting to meet up with Georges St-Pierre.
Legendary former UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre announced on Thursday that he’s retiring after a remarkable career as one of the most dominant fighters the sport has ever seen.
The current welterweight king, Tyron Woodley, was one of many fighters to congratulate GSP for calling it a career since the first news report came out on Wednesday. Although he never got the chance to fight the Canadian superstar, he has extended an invite to him to get in some work in the gym.
“Just had a vision of calling him out after my next fight @arielhelwani. Congrats to one of the Greatest!,” Woodley wrote in response to an Instagram post from ESPN’s Ariel Helwani (via MMAjunkie). “@georgesstpierre since we will never cross paths in the octagon would love to do so in the gym! Would be an honor. You have had the best run of any fighter to grace the caged canvas!”
Despite Woodley’s interest in making the fight happen, St-Pierre wasn’t as intrigued. In fact, his retirement occurred after apparent failed negotiations to drop down in weight to take on lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov. Woodley said after his win over Darren Till that he no longer needed to beat GSP to be considered the greatest welterweight of all-time, an honor universally bestowed upon St-Pierre.
Woodley is scheduled to defend his title against Kamaru Usman in the UFC 235 co-main event. A win would give him four consecutive title defense victories, along with his draw against Stephen Thompson at UFC 205 in 2016.