UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov aims to successfully defend his belt vs. Justin Gaethje at UFC 254 on October 24, then fight former champ champ Georges St-Pierre, and retire with a perfect 30-0 record. During a recent interview with TSN, GSP detailed the conditions for his return.
Why step back in, but why not step back in? We only live once. So that’s the question that I’m facing now,” said St-Pierre. “If I have an opportunity to do it and all the stars are aligned and I don’t do it. I’ve still got it. I would say I’m still in my best years. Will I regret when I reach 50 years old? Will I tell myself I wish I had done that and I did not do that.
It was an opportunity of a lifetime to fight a guy [in Khabib Nurmagomedov] who’s undefeated, who’s never been beat and I could have been the first. I don’t know. Sometimes I feel like, now with COVID the situation is different, but when I train, I still get it. I’m very confident. If you would ask right during training or before training, ‘hey would you like to fight again?’ I would be like ‘yeah, let’s do it. I’m down.’ Then after I go home and everything, after a hot shower then you go home, things calm down and the adrenaline calms down and you ask me would you like to fight and I’m like I don’t know, I’m not sure about it. I’m good where I am. I’m comfortable. I’m satisfied. Satisfaction for an athlete is the death. You’re done. You’re finished when you’re satisfied.
In order to come back, I’m in the mental state where I’m not sure. The stars would need to be all aligned perfectly. More than two years ago, it’s already almost three years, we tried to make the fight with Khabib. I wanted to go all in. I was ready for it. Anything goes. I was all in. Now things have changed. Three years have gone by, COVID and all that, I kind of let go of the idea of coming back to fight. You know what I mean?
So I would need to put me back in a different warrior mode. Cause when I fight, my brain doesn’t function the same way than when I’m in normal life. Maybe it’s because of my obsessive-compulsive thing that I’m so focused on it like nothing else matters. I’m only focused on one thing and it’s to win and what I need to do to win. I need to achieve it and do it at all costs. I need to rewire myself if I get to fight again.
There’s a lot of infrastructure problems in the weight class. He’s fighting at 155. I know I can go at 155, but the problem is now I’m 39. Three years have passed [since my last fight]. I haven’t cut weight for a long time. If I go down to 155, my performance will be compromised. I know Khabib is the same size as me, he’s maybe bigger than me when he’s offseason. I never got up to 200. I’m at 185. So that turns to his advantage if we cut more weight, he’s able to bounce back more than I am. He’s used to it.
I’ve never been a fan of cutting weight. Even when I was a welterweight, I was 185. Most guys are much bigger than 185. But that’s one of the things in the principles of the art of war. Know the terrain. I don’t know. I’ve never fought at 155. He knows. I believe to make it fair we need to fight in a place where we’ve never been, both of us. That would have to be a condition to me coming back if it happens.
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h/t Damon Martin for MMA Fighting
