UFC Rebuffs Georges St-Pierre's Free Agent Claim | MMAWeekly.com

Georges St-Pierre laid claim to free agency on Monday. The UFC begged to differ.

During an interview on The MMA Hour, St-Pierre declared, “Right now, I’m free agent. My lawyer terminated the contract with the UFC.”

While that may be the perspective of St-Pierre and his legal team, it is a perspective not shared by UFC officials. In a statement released to MMAWeekly.com Monday evening, the UFC asserted that it has a valid agreement with St-Pierre and intends to honor it, implying that it was willing to use legal means to enforce the contract.

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“Georges St-Pierre remains under an existing agreement with Zuffa, LLC, as his MMA promoter,” read the statement. “Zuffa intends to honor its agreement with St-Pierre and reserves its rights under the law to have St-Pierre do the same.”

Following his declaration of free agency, St-Pierre explained that his team had been in negotiation with the UFC, primarily with former owner Lorenzo Fertitta, since February. St-Pierre felt that the negotiation had gotten close to a resolution, but things fell apart, he said, when the UFC was sold to new ownership, who allegedly scrapped the Fertitta forged contract.

“I believe if Lorenzo had been there maybe it would have been different, because we were making a lot of progress towards the end when we were talking to Lorenzo, but when the new owners came, all the offers were off the table.”

His attorney, James Quinn, gave the fight promotion what St-Pierre characterized as a “legal deadline.” When the matter was not resolved to their satisfaction by that deadline, Quinn apparently told St-Pierre that he was now a free agent.

St-Pierre’s declaration on Monday was likely the first shot across the bow, to which the UFC responded in kind with its statement. Unless the two parties come to some sort of resolution, this is likely to become a full blown legal battle.

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