Interview: Georges St-Pierre ‘starting the USADA process’ for UFC return

This feature interview with former UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre is a guest column written by Israel-based writer Ram Gilboa.

The Ritz Carlton Herzliya lobby has big glass walls overlooking the beach, and low, stout, round seats which are much more comfortable than you would guess before sitting down. The greatest welterweight fighter that has ever lived is sitting on one such seat in a sun lit corner booth. He was invited to Israel along with a small group celebrities and high-profile athletes, by NBA’s Omri Casspi and the ‘Omri Casspi Foundation.’ They tour the country, play basketball with kids, people read about it.

Georges St. Pierre is offered a glass of water with cut cucumbers inside. He wears a black v-collar, khaki shorts, has a tan, and he smiles a lot. Laughs, too. It’s vacation hot outside, on the northern outskirts of Tel-Aviv, but the champion doesn’t seem in a rush. He answers every question, and makes the interviewer feel much more comfortable than he would have guessed before sitting down.

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Welcome to Israel, Thanks for meeting with me, it’s an honor.

GSP: Thank you very much, it’s my pleasure.

Everybody’s asking the same question for the past few weeks, more actually: Are you coming back?

Now we’re talking again and I’m starting the USADA process to be tested, I’m starting it Aug 10. in Las Vegas. Because to be eligible to fight you need to be tested.-Georges St-Pierre

GSP: I want to. My agent is negotiating with the UFC, they had an offer, we made a counteroffer, you know that’s how business goes. And then we heard a day after that UFC sold for $4 billion dollars. So we waited for a few days, to see what was going on, because even some of the employees were afraid of losing their job – even some of the high ranking people in the UFC were afraid. We wanted to let the management to take care of their own company first, and then see what happens.

Now we’re talking again and I’m starting the USADA process to be tested, I’m starting it Aug 10. in Las Vegas. Because to be eligible to fight you need to be tested.

Unless you’re Brock Lesnar.

GSP: Yeah exactly, but he had a free pass, I think it was an exemption of a month or something like that. But me, I don’t want to be an exception, because I was very outspoken about Performance Enhancing Drugs. It would be bad for my reputation if I would have an exemption – I don’t want to have a free pass, I want to be like everybody else. That’s why I’ll be starting the process Aug 10. I don’t have any fight yet, but it’s gonna happen now, because I’m getting tested, if I’m getting tested it’s for a reason.

Do you have your sights on an opponent? There was a lot of talk about Tyron Woodley, and there was a lot of talk about Michael Bisping-

GSP: Yes.

And before that I heard a lot of talk about Robbie Lawler-

GSP: The first offer they made us was for Bisping. We were interested in that fight, we made a counter offer, but like I said one day after we heard they sold the company. Bisping was already a world champion. They asked us if we wanted to fight in Toronto, I don’t remember if it was the Rogers center or the Air Canada center, but it was to be Bisping. And I said yeah, I’m interested, but you know how negotiations go, they give you a price, they lowball you, you put a higher price, and then we meet somewhere in the middle.

Is Bisping interested?

GSP: I heard he was interested. But I heard also that he was interested to fight Dan Henderson. I understand that. He’s a proud athlete, and I’m a proud fighter too. And I have lost fights before, and for me that was important to avenge losses. If you want to be a proud person, then you want to avenge your loss. For me it was Serra and Hughes, and for Michael Bisping, Henderson is one of his losses – one of his most painful losses. So I understand why he wants to avenge it. As an athlete I understand. So that’s why that fight did not happen.

So far?

GSP: Look, the reason that that fight was supposed to happen, I believe the reason UFC wanted to make it, and people were talking about it, it’s we each have nineteen wins inside the Octagon. 185 is not my division, I don’t make my career at 185, it was to be a super-fight, for it was an exceptional reason.

For me there is no reason why to go up in weight class, because when you go up in weight class you have to fight bigger guys – then you have to train against bigger guys. The guys are not better, they’re heavier, but it means you have more chance to get hurt. Not because you get beat up – because you slip, or-

(St. Pierre points to two vertical scars starting at each knee and running narrowly further down the shin).

I had two ACL injuries in my life, and both of them happened when I was training with bigger guys; a heavyweight and a light heavyweight. Sometimes it’s not even because the guy is good, you just get hurt.

I think your style, correct me if I’m wrong, because you’re such an aggressive wrestler, wrestling bigger guys, you can hurt yourself.

GSP: Yeah, exactly. It’s not only the fight, it’s the training. To fight a bigger guy you need to train with bigger guys and it takes a lot more on your body. And it’s not your weight class. I would have done it because it was a nineteen wins against nineteen wins – who will have the most wins [inside the Octagon], that’s one thing I’m very proud of. But now he’s going to fight Dan Henderson.

It’s set? He’s fighting Henderson for sure?

GSP: Yes, he’s fighting Dan Henderson, so it’s not going to be nineteen wins against nineteen wins now, it’s going to change. The whole idea of it is not as interesting from a business standpoint. so I don’t see the interest, because it’s not my competition. If I’m at 185, I’m gonna fight and go down – and the UFC, I’m sure they don’t want me to get the title and go down after.

So you want Welterweight now?

GSP: My division is Welterweight. I could fight 155, 185 – 170 is where I’m comfortable, better, and it is better for me. I could make a super-fight, but I don’t them to expect me to be fighting regularly at 185.

But you’re Georges St. Pierre, you can probably choose whoever you want.

GSP: I can choose whoever I want – you know, in MMA things change very rapidly, sometimes you don’t know what’ll happen and there’s a guy that upsets everybody. I could fight who the fans would like me to fight the most. For me that’s important.

But you’re coming back.

The UFC runs a business, but it’s also the fault of a lot of the fighters – they accept any fight, they will sign anything. They have to look at their career as a business as well.-Georges St-Pierre

GSP: Yeah. I would like to say, they need to make sure they take care and negotiate the problems. You know, I have a very good agent with me. The fighters, they complain they’re not getting paid a lot, they get exploited sometimes; The UFC runs a business, but it’s also the fault of a lot of the fighters – they accept any fight, they will sign anything. They have to look at their career as a business as well. They have to hire some confident people to do that job. I’m an athlete, my job is not negotiating, it’s not my field of expertise. I’m an emotional guy – it’s normal, a lot of athletes are, and we’re very susceptible to get our ego cut because of that. Dana White came out very often in public saying I’m this and that; I’m sure it’s also to play with my ego, to make me, for example, come out of retirement and say ‘Oh ok, I’ll fight for peanuts.’ No, I’m not like that. I know the game.

That’s how it is, and I will never blame a fighter if he doesn’t fight me because he takes care of his own …

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