GSP: Fighters with a PED past shouldn’t be in the G.O.A.T. discussion
Georges St-Pierre. “People have no idea how much of a difference, and I know it because I’ve trained with people who are using peak performance-enhancing drugs.
Welterweight G.O.A.T. Georges St-Pierre stepped away from the sport and his title in 2013, citing never-fully-defined pressures. He later added that he thought performance-enhancing drugs were a massive problem in the sport that the UFC was not adequately addressing. And he suffered another knee injury. The UFC later hired Jeff Novitzky, the Eliot Ness of doping, who initiated arguably the toughest PED testing program in the world. GSP was impressed, returned, and won the middleweight championship, and entered the very short list of nominees for Greatest of all Time.
In a recent discussion with Shaun Al-Shatti for MMA Fighting, GSP discussed the role of PEDs.
It makes such a difference, said St-Pierre. People have no idea how much of a difference, and I know it because I’ve trained with people who are using peak performance-enhancing drugs. I’ve trained with a lot of them, that I know for sure. I’ve trained with them, and you could see a huge difference. Like, when you grapple with them, it’s not even the same guy. It’s like if you’re taking two different human beings. It’s completely insane.
Just look at the difference with some of the — I’m not saying any names, because I don’t want to attack an individual, I want to change the system — just look at the difference with some people. Look, I remember there was a fight between two opponents, and one guy said, ‘Oh, it’s not the performance-enhancing [drugs] that threw the kick. It’s me.’ Actually, it’s not true. That’s the performance-enhancing drugs that threw the kick, because you wouldn’t have thrown the kick [like that] if you would have not taken them. You know what I mean? So to give you an example, it makes you more creative, it makes you more hungry. It changes the physique.
Also, not only the physique, it changes the mind of the person. So with people, they think it’s only affecting strength and conditioning and stuff like that. No, it doesn’t. It’s not only recuperation — it changes the person entirely. It makes him a better athlete. And yes, I think they should be removed from the [GOAT discussion].
It’s very hard to say that, because a lot of people, they work hard. We know if they got caught once or twice, but we don’t know if they’re all taking it for all of their life or not, so it’s a hard topic to say. It’s not black or white. It’s grey.