GSP hasn’t closed door on fighting, could be at 155, 170, or 185

Welterweight G.O.A.T. Georges St-Pierre appeared recently on Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour, and discussed a potential return to the Octagon. GSP gave up his middleweight belt in early December, citing the debilitating effects of Colitis, but that condition is apparently beginning to resolve.

It’s a lot better, said St-Pierre, as transcribed by Shaun Al-Shatti for MMA Fighting. I’m on medication, but I started doing intermittent fasting and it helped me a lot. A lot of my symptoms are gone and I feel a lot better, however, I lost a lot of weight, but I’m very, very ripped. It seems like the cause of that (sickness) was probably the fact that I tried [to] eat so much, and forced myself to eat to elevate my weight, and with the stress and everything, I don’t think it was a good thing to do for me. I learned from my mistakes.

St-Pierre said he walks around now at 180-185, and cannot say definitively that he will return to the Octagon,

I need to wait for my condition, to see where my weight will be at and where my health will be at, he said. I’m still on medication right now, so I can’t fight right now … because I’m sure if I go back, even if I start feeling better, if I go back to fighting with the stress and everything, bang, I will probably go right back into it [feeling ill]. So I need to wait a little bit, see how it feels, to be stable for a longer period of time.

I’ve not closed the door. And also, I will have to think about what weight at 185, 170, 155, what would be the weight. I’ve won the title at 170 many times. Doesn’t mean I cannot go back and try to go for the title, but for me, now that I’m at the end of my career, if I do something, it needs to be something that excites me, something that is a win-win situation that can elevate me. I’ve said it many times. I know I repeat myself, but it’s the truth.

I could’ve lost a lot [vs . Bisping at 185]. I put my legacy on the line. It was very risky. It was an idea that started first with my coach John Danaher, he said, ‘You’ve been fighting at 170 all of your life, one of your main criticisms was that never went up a weight class. Why don’t you try to take on the champion at 185?’ And I thought it was a great idea to shut down one of the criticisms, and I had a lot of time to put on some weight, and that’s what I did. And I changed my way of training. I tried to make myself more exciting as a fighter, more opportunistic, someone who can finish fights actually, not win a decision. That was my other criticism. I wanted to win by finish, and I believe I answered both of those criticisms at the same time. That’s why this fight, I’m very happy about the result of that fight.

If I would’ve lost, I would’ve lost big. It was a risk. I took the risk. And Dana maybe is not happy about it, because he doesn’t control me. Maybe he’s used to dealing with people that he controls, but he does not control me. I don’t depend on fighting. I don’t need the UFC to live. I have been there, done that, but I don’t depend on fighting. I have other stuff on the side that has nothing to do with the UFC, and I don’t need to fight for the rest of my life if I don’t want to.

I can’t fight right now, and things in MMA change very rapidly. I don’t know. Maybe in a few months a guy will win a title and he’s going to be the new pound-for-pound king, and maybe that will excite me. Who knows?

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