Quote: ‘Georges St-Pierre’s Career Being Over Is Definite Possibility’
It might be a while until we see former two-division champion Georges St-Pierre compete inside the Octagon if ever.
St-Pierre returned last month after a nearly four-year hiatus to win the middleweight title with a submission victory in the third round over Michael Bisping at UFC 217.
Plans for St-Pierre’s next fight are on hold as the former UFC middleweight champion is suffering from colitis and will be out of action indefinitely, according to UFC President Dana White.
GSP’s Brazilian jiu-jitsu coach, John Danaher, claimed during this week’s episode of The MMA Hour that the former UFC welterweight and middleweight champion may never fight again due to this medical situation.
Danaher insisted that St-Pierre would need time to decide if he would return to the Octagon in what he described as a “life-changing decision.” He would go on to add that the reaction that the former champion had to his medications would play a big part in the decision.
“That is a definite possibility,” he replied when asked if St-Pierre’s competitive career could be over.
“I don’t want to say yes or no because it’s not my decision, really. These are deeply personal decisions that Georges has to make. More over, they have to be made not as spur of the moment decisions.
“These are life-changing decisions, so they will have to made on the basis of Georges’ reaction to the medications that he’s taking for ulcerative colitis. From what I understand, the standard medications for ulcerative colitis take some considerable amount time to take effect – anywhere from three to eight months – before you’ll even notice any changes. We have to see how he reacts to his medication regiment and make a decision based on that.”
“What I don’t like to see is people fighting because they think they have to,” he said. “This is a very, very hard sport. I don’t think many people are aware of the rigors of what goes on in a championship level fight camp.”
By beating Bisping, the win made St-Pierre just the fourth fighter in UFC history to win titles in two divisions. He now joins Randy Couture, B.J. Penn, and Conor McGregor.
“It’s not for the faint of heart, and if you’re not 100 percent committed to the project and it’s not something you positively enjoy doing at least in some way, you don’t have to love every aspect of it but there has to be some kind of deep feeling of enjoyment fulfillment – then I don’t believe you should get involved.
“I know one fight camp where Georges wasn’t mentally committed to it was the fight camp with Hendricks, where there were doubts about whether he wanted to be fighting anymore. That was probably the fight camp where he had the least motivation to get in there, as he normally would.”
He made it clear that St-Pierre had every intention of continuing to fight ahead of the Bisping fight. However, all of that has changed.
“Here (for the Bisping fight) there was tremendous motivation,” Danaher said. Georges was extremely enthusiastic about the fight and expressed a deep desire to comeback. But, there was a physical problem, which was making it difficult.
“Your first question was medically will he be able to comeback? The answer is we don’t know yet and we’ll see how he reacts to the medication. Your second question was psychologically is he in the game – does he want to do this?
“I know for a fact that prior to the Bisping fight the answer was yes. Since this medical problem has come up and become so prevalent and emerged so strongly in the middle of the last camp – it’s an open question at this point. It’ll be determined by how he reacts to the medication that he is on.”
