Georges St-Pierre Needed To Leave Fighting To Have A Normal Life
Former UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre has talked about coming back to MMA since retiring but has not done so yet. He decided to take a break from MMA following his split-decision victory over Johny Hendricks at UFC 167. It’s been speculated that we would see the former champion fighting again soon, but it appears that will not happen.
St-Pierre recently said in an interview that his last two or three fights of his career he didn’t have fun at all and that led to his decision to retire. Also, the fact that he has OCD didn’t help his career at all.
“The last two or three fights, I didn’t have fun.” St-Pierre said in a recent interview with Joe Buck on “Undeniable”. “I did it because I had to, not because I wanted to and I had too much pressure, too much criticism, too much things for too long, and it’s very hard when you’re world champion, all your life is directed (on that).
“Especially for me with my obsessive-compulsive disorder, I wanted to be the best in the world so everything I do, it’s directed on that. That’s all that mattered for me. I needed to step out of if to have a normal social life. To take a mental break of all that.”
“GSP” explained that he got into the sport because he liked it and had passion for it, but then once he started winning fights, earning money and titles, it became a business for him.
“The thing that happened, when I first started doing this sport, in the beginning, I didn’t have any money. I was doing it for the love and the passion of the sport. I really liked what I was doing. It was money, but I was not a wealthy person, and I was doing it for the fun. Then the fun became a business. It became a lot of money and business involved, other kinds of problems that comes with that. (Notorious) B.I.G., the rapper said ‘more money, more problems’, which is true,” St-Pierre said.
“So the fun became a business, and the business became stressful. The stress became the brick that I’m carrying on my shoulder all the time. I decided to take that brick and put it down and try to step out of the sport instead of try to carry it as long as I can and maybe lose a fight and get beat up bad.”
St-Pierre went into detail about his OCD and how he would focus so much on his next opponent that he didn’t enjoy his life and constantly thought about his next opponent.
“To show you how crazy I am, an example of my OCD, when I used to win the world title I was very happy. As soon as Dana White announced who I’m going to fight next, my mind is shifting towards that person that I’m going to fight next,” St-Pierre described. “Like I just can’t release it mentally, I can’t take a break. I’m supposed to enjoy it.
“Some people will take some vacation. I just can’t. I’m taking vacation, but I’m constantly thinking about that next guy in line. I’m telling myself because I was champion; now I’m thinking about him now until the fight, which is maybe six months. But he’s been thinking about me for the last few years since I got the title. So I’m telling myself I better get ready because he’s ready for sure coming at me.”
Finally, the elephant in the room was brought up. Would he come back to MMA? St-Pierre said that he had been contacted by the UFC about returning, but he will make that decision and not the promotion.
“The truth is they’ve called me a few times,” St-Pierre said about the UFC. “Sometimes they make the other people call me to have the message. The truth is if I want to be back, it’s going to be up to me to tell them when I want to get back.”
