UFC 209's Stephen Thompson happy not having to fight Georges St-Pierre should he win title

LAS VEGAS – Stephen Thompson is glad he won’t have to fight Georges St-Pierre should he capture the UFC welterweight championship from Tyron Woodley at UFC 209.

Thompson (13-1-1 MMA, 8-1-1 UFC), who rematches Woodley (16-3-1 MMA, 6-3-1 UFC) for the 170-pound title in Saturday’s pay-per-view headliner at T-Mobile Arena, has been a training partner of St-Pierre’s (25-2 MMA, 19-2 UFC) for past camps of the longtime titleholder.

Although they haven’t worked together in several years, Thompson said at today’s UFC 209 open workouts that he has no desire to fight “Rush” and is glad the Canadian star is moving up to the middleweight division for an announced title showdown with Michael Bisping.

“He was my inspiration from my transition from kickboxing to mixed martial arts,” Thompson said of St-Pierre. “I spent a lot of time in Montreal training with him, helping him out with a lot of his camps. We have a good relationship. A better relationship than me and Rory (MacDonald) had. We were closer than that. But yeah, man. That’s something I don’t think I would ever (do).”

There was speculation St-Pierre would return to welterweight in attempt to regain the belt he never lost, but rather vacated when he took a hiatus from the sport following a successful title defense against Johny Hendricks at UFC 167 in November 2013.

That’s clearly not the case, though, and Thompson said he’s happy he won’t have to cross paths with St-Pierre should he begin a title reign of his own this weekend.

“He’s maybe the best welterweight of all time and for him to go to 185, I know he wants to try different things, maybe 185 or 155,” Thompson said. “I’m happy for him. I can’t wait to see Georges St-Pierre back out there again.”

Check out Thompson’s complete UFC 209 open workout scrum above.

And for more on UFC 209, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.