FOR REAL THIS TIME
Everyone’s favorite Canadian and former 11x consecutive world champion Georges St-Pierre has announced on The MMA Hour that he’s ready to get back into the octagon for big fights. While it seems like the name Anderson Silva keeps coming up there’s a lot of potential fights for this welterweight superstar. Ultimately, they’ve got to make GSP an offer he can’t refuse.
“Exactly. That’s what I’m saying,” St-Pierre, 35, said when asked point blank if he was announcing his return. “I’m ready. I’m an emotional guy. My agents, even before I came on the show today, they briefed me. They said, ‘don’t say this, don’t say that.’ They briefed me, they said, ‘we’re in negotiations, remember, blah, blah, blah.’ Like, yeah, yeah, yeah, don’t worry, I’m not a kid. But I’m an emotional guy, and when I get emotional sometimes, I say things that are necessarily in the best of my interests, and I’m trying to not go overboard with that.
“But the only thing is, I love my sport and I still feel I’m at my best right now. The clock is running. I’m not getting any younger. I’m in the peak of my career and if there is a shot, there is another goal, another run, I better do it and do it quick, because it is time to do it now.”
While it’s great to see George St. Pierre opening up about his emotions and following his dreams, the cold hard reality is that he’s coming back into a weight class full of killers. After barely coming out the victor in a hotly contested bout with Johnny Hendricks, GSP has spent his 3 year hiatus making shows about dinosaurs and aliens while Robbie Lawler and the rest of the division have been beating grown men’s faces in. This is not to say he won’t be successful in his return but let’s not get ahead of ourselves here.
“What I did is I did a training camp to see where I’m at,” St-Pierre said. “I’ve been training, but being in shape and being in fighting shape is something different. I did a training to push myself and go back to the highest level of competition. I didn’t fight, but I put myself through a training camp and I sparred and everything, and I did it successfully. Now I know for a fact that I could go back and fight, if my management and the UFC get to an agreement.”
“I have a lot to lose in this, because I finished on top,” St-Pierre said. “I finished as champion, and that’s the way everybody would like to leave the sport — on top, healthy, and wealthy — and I did it. If I go back and, it needs to be for something big. I think for my first fight, it needs to be for something big, and that ll give me the swing and the momentum to do it again and again and again for another run.
“So it depends on what it going to happen, but I have a lot to lose, but the thing is also, the reason why I’ve been thinking of coming back, is I don’t want to end up at 80 years old and telling myself, ‘I should’ve done this, I should’ve done that.’ Because all of the things I regret in my life the most, it’s not the things that I have done. It’s the things that I have not done, the things that I regret the most. So I don’t want to end up where I’m too old and say, ‘aw, I should’ve done it. I was in great shape. My timing was impeccable, and I didn’t do it,’ so I would die with regret.”
It’s great to see GSP living life on his own terms but one can’t help but wonder if this is a mistake. If he really wants to see what he’s made of like he’s said in the comments, then it’s a good thing. Win or loose he’ll get to test his muster. On the other hand if he’s looking for a living legacy, contenders like Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson, Damien Maia, Carlos Condit, and Michael Bisping will make sure that’s a hard road.
What do you guys think of the possible return of GSP? Will it happen…should it happen? Chime in with your thoughts below.
