GSP: Less strenuous drug testing influenced my break
“I tried to change things, and unfortunately, maybe for money reasons, maybe for image, they were not ready to do that,” said George St-Pierre.
Georges St-Pierre said Tuesday at a French language media scrum that a lack of strenuous drug testing was one of the factors that led to his decision to step away from the sport.
“It bothered me greatly, it was one of the reasons I decided to step aside,” St-Pierre said.
He vacated his welterweight title and took a hiatus from the sport in December, citing a need to lead a normal life and deal with mental fatigue.
The 32-year-old confirmed when asked by a reporter that his employer, the UFC, did not support him when he proposed drug testing in the weeks preceding his Nov. 16 fight against Johnny Hendricks.
“I tried to change things, and unfortunately, maybe for money reasons, maybe for image, they were not ready to do that,” St-Pierre said. “I tried to (bring about) change in a very diplomatic way and it didn’t work so it’s unfortunate, but I believe it will happen sooner or later.”
St-Pierre said he hasn’t set any timetable to make a decision regarding his UFC future.
ZUFFA CEO Lorenzo Fertitta told Yahoo Sports he would call St-Pierre to discuss the issue.
“We’ve always had an open line of communication with him and I’d like to know why he feels that way,” said Fertitta.
“It was extremely disappointing to hear Georges make those comments because I don’t think any organization has embraced drug testing as we have. We have not only agreed to pay when the commission has said it wants to do enhanced testing, we’ve encouraged it. We have no problem with testing. When we serve as the commission [in areas out of the country where there is no commission], we test everyone on the card so we are thorough and there can be no claims of bias.
“Whatever a commission would want us to do in terms of testing, we would embrace it. We’ll do as many as they want. I think perhaps Georges’ people didn’t communicate to him in detail everything we’d do as they tried to arrange the testing for the fight with him and Johny.”