Georges St-Pierre says he returned to the UFC for one reason: legacy, and hinted that he could perhaps fight in three divisions.
Georges St-Pierre has had a lot of time to reflect on his career since he vacated the welterweight title after beating Johny Hendricks at UFC 167.
The mixed martial arts icon announced to Joe Rogan in the post-fight interview that he needed to take some time away from the sport but didn't announce an official retirement.
After spending over three years on the sidelines, St-Pierre has made the decision to return to the Octagon to cement his status as the greatest fighter to compete in MMA.
GSP defended his title nine times and is already considered a pound-for-pound great, but the former champion wants to leave no doubt as to who the greatest of all time is.
The 35-year-old will return in a middleweight championship bout against Michael Bisping and told Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour that he could even become a three-division champ.
“I walk around at 185, 190 pounds. I’m going to fight at 185 right now,” St-Pierre said, per Shaun Al-Shatti of MMA Fighting. “I even know some guys who fight at 155 (who) walk around in the offseason at a bigger weight than I am. I can possibly fight in those three divisions. But I’m back for one reason, I want to make history. I’m going to be 36 years old when I’m going to fight, and it’s all going to depend on what’s going to happen and how it’s going to happen.
“I have no desire to fight until I’m 40-something years old. These are my last fight few that I’m going to do, and I want to pick them very carefully. And when I say carefully, I [mean] that I want to make the biggest fights possible. The fights that are going to cement my legacy as the best of all-time. And that’s what I want to do, I want to make history. And maybe I’m going to fail, but at least if I fail, I’m going to have no regrets when I’m going to be 50 years old.”
If St-Pierre beats Bisping to become middleweight champion, it's unlikely that he will defend the title against one of the division's top contenders. Instead, GSP wants to fight whoever has the highest 'stock' so that his legacy will be etched into the history books forever.
Given St-Pierre's sentiments about fighting in three separate divisions, it seems that the Canadian could be eyeing a potential lightweight championship showdown with Conor McGregor, although he didn't state so specifically.
“I’ve made a lot of scenarios in my mind, but what I’ve learned in the past is, I used to overthink stuff,” he said. “That was one of my problems when I was fighting. I even had problems to pull the trigger sometimes because I was overthinking stuff. When you overthink stuff, it never happens the way you want. So it depends on what’s going to happen. What will be the next big thing for me? Who will be the man to beat?
“Who will be the man that, if I beat (him), it will cement my legacy to be the best of all-time? Who will it be, the man that will have the highest stock? What will be my next move to do something that would not be seen before? That’s going to depend. So we don’t know. We can have an idea or speculate, but we don’t know.”
St-Pierre also hinted at fighting Demian Maia in the future, as he believes the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu specialist is going to be the next 170-pound champ.
“There’s a guy in the welterweight division I see, to me, that if I have to make a prediction, I believe he will be the champion,” he continued. “I don’t like to see past things, but I think as he is right now, Demian Maia is very, very skilled.
“I see him as a very big threat right now for the title. I think he’s going to win over (Jorge) Masvidal, and I think he’s going to win over (Tyron) Woodley if he fights him. He’s older and he’s in his prime right now. I think he reached his perfect timing between physical, mental, and his game. I think he’s just so good at what he does. He’s like a blade of a katana. I think his blade is very sharp, it’s perfectly polished. He’s going to be very hard to stop right now.”
While no date or venue has been set, St-Pierre is expected to take on Michael Bisping during international fight week in July, possibly in his backyard of Toronto, Canada.