Georges St-Pierre: I wasn't motivated for Johny Hendricks fight

BERLIN – While mostly staying away from reporters gathered at a crossfit gym for UFC Fight Night 41, Georges St-Pierre gave a small update about the goings-on in his life.

First, St-Pierre, who was in Berlin in support of teammate and Saturday combatant Francis Carmont, is still healing from a second torn ACL. He did not give a timetable for when he would be fully cleared to train, but was hopeful about the outcome.

“I had the same procedure on my right knee, and my leg came back stronger,” he said. “I will have two good knees, so it will be a good thing.”

In the meantime, the former welterweight champ is watching the sport from a distance, including the sudden race near the top between a handful of standout welterweights. Robbie Lawler, Matt Brown, Hector Lombard, and Dong Hyun Kim are a few of the frontrunners. But St-Pierre, of course, has his eye closer to home.

“I’m very happy and very excited, and my friend and training partner Rory MacDonald is part of that group, and I think he is going to be champion,” he said.

Nevertheless, the fighter, who this month turned 33, agrees with UFC President Dana White’s assessment that now is an exciting time to watch 170-pounders fight.

“It’s true – it is the most exciting time, because they have a lot of different contenders,” St-Pierre said. “It’s a lot of new guys – they’re not veterans. I mean, some of them are veterans that were not there before, so it’s a lot of new faces.”

Johny Hendricks, of course, is the face and champion after St-Pierre vacated the belt and Hendricks outpointed Lawler at UFC 171 in March. Earlier in his career, St-Pierre might have liked to have erased any doubts about his split-decision over the champ at this past November’s UFC 167. But he is still finding himself after making the decision to take time off from the sport following that fight.

St-Pierre (25-2 MMA, 19-2 UFC) initially said his reasons for stepping away from the sport were personal. As time went on, however, he revealed his issues with the UFC’s drug testing protocol and struggles with OCD.

While he is invested in the welterweight division’s fate, St-Pierre apparently isn’t up to speed on an issue he said was close to his heart. Asked for his thoughts on the random testing funded by the UFC for a recent title fight between light heavyweight champ Jon Jones and Glover Teixeira, he said, “I haven’t followed that.”

Whether he does continue to follow the sport or not, however, he will be asked at every turn when he’ll be back.

In previous interviews, he’s teased a comeback. But before this particular group of reporters on a rainy Berlin day, he didn’t have answers about his future – only that his past was something less than comfortable to be avoided.

“I’ve been doing this for a long time, since I was 19,” he said. “I’m 33 now. When I fought (Carlos) Condit, I was very hungry. I was very happy to be there. I wanted to do it a lot. (Nick) Diaz, a little bit less. And the last training camp I had with (Johny) Hendricks, I didn’t have the same motivation. It went down, and I need to get back to that feeling of hunger.

“I need to get the motivation back. It’s hard, because it’s always the same routine, the same thing. And I need to fix some things in my life to make it more efficient. Once everything can be done, maybe I’ll come back. We’ll see how it goes. But I can’t say yes, I can’t say no, because I just don’t know right now.”

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