There have been rumbles of Georges St-Pierre returning for months now. Famed boxing coach Freddie Roach discussed running a camp with the former welterweight champ. His MMA coach, Firas Zahabi, has been stoking the fire of superfights with either Conor McGregor or Nate Diaz. For the most part though, GSP has been fairly quiet on a return to the Octagon...until now.
On Monday's edition of The MMA Hour, St-Pierre himself teased a comeback to MMA Fighting's Ariel Helwani. "If I feel good, I'll give the thumbs up to my manager," he said (h/t to MMA Fighting's Marc Raimondi for the transcription). "They've been talking with UFC, but now they're going to talk more seriously to see what's gonna happen."
Warning, NSFW Language
While the rumors have been swirling for months and St-Pierre openly stated that his return wasn't guaranteed, this is still a surprising announcement. St-Pierre famously announced that he was taking an indefinite leave from the sport following his controversial UFC 167 win over Johny Hendricks. Numerous explanations were given including his frustration with lax drug testing and a struggle with obsessive compulsive disorder, but his break from the sport only became more mysterious with time.
As the months turned to years, the relationship between St-Pierre and UFC brass became progressively worse. UFC President Dana White was visibly irate when St-Pierre announced that he was taking time off at UFC 167 and infamously declared that he "owed it to the company" to rematch Hendricks while speaking with Fox Sports 1 before tearing into him at the post-fight press conference and saying "his problems aren't as bad as he thinks they are." Not long after, he would label St-Pierre's criticism of UFC drug testing procedures as "kooky" and "insane" and, last year, stated he was laughing at the discussion of a GSP return.
St-Pierre has apparently moved past it, saying, "I'm not on bad terms with nobody. I understand it's a business." That, however, doesn't mean he sees eye-to-eye with the promotion quite yet.
St-Pierre specifically discussed his dissatisfaction with the terms of the UFC's Reebok deal as a sticking point for his return. "We need to renegotiate maybe a new contract. I'm not allowed to wear my sponsors anymore, and I lose money," he said. "It depends how it's gonna go down with the UFC. We'll see what's gonna happen."
Once again, St-Pierre's return is far from a certainty at this point, but fans finally have cause to start getting excited about a return.
