Following Kamaru Usman’s impressive win over Gilbert Burns at UFC 258 on Saturday night there was renewed interest in the champion fighting welterweight legend Georges St-Pierre next, but it seems the retired superstar isn’t motivated to return for that match-up.
“Of course, I will always train but if ask me if I want to come back? Just try to put yourself into my shoes and try to come back,” St-Pierre told Canada’s ‘The Good Show’ on SN590. “Of course, if I tried to come back for a fight with Kamaru Usman, I would have to literally leave the country. You cannot train right now in Canada, with the Covid. I would have to bring my coaches somewhere, find a basecamp. Fly in some training partners because it’s Kamaru Usman. You need to get ready, you need a real training camp.
“Just that, leave my home, leave my family, leave my place, I’m very reluctant to do it and I don’t need to do it. I’m healthy, I’m wealthy, it’s not appealing to lose three months of my life, stress and everything for trying to get a win over Kamaru Usman. It’s not. As time pass by, it’s getting less and less and less appealing. I don’t think there’s anybody now that will make me come back. I’m good.”
Usman surpassed GSP’s UFC record welterweight winning streak with the TKO stoppage over Burns, having now amassed 13 wins in a row, but he still has a ways to go to beat the Canadian’s nine-consecutive title defenses in a row (Usman has three).
Regardless of Usman’s achievements though, it sounds a lot like GSP is just becoming increasingly comfortable with the idea of staying retired.
“Time has passed,” St-Pierre said. “My life’s not the same as it was two years ago. The universe has changed, so to speak. That’s how it works. For now to go back for Kamaru, I’m very happy for what he does, what he has achieved, but to go back to give three months of my life, put myself in training camp to try and get a win against Kamaru Usman, it doesn’t get me motivated.
“I don’t know if there is anything that will get me motivated to go back to competition.”
“It seems to me like people want to see me go on my shield,” St-Pierre continued. “You see a lot of guys they wait too long before they retire and they go on their shield. I never want to do this. I want to compete at my best. I’m at the point I’m really asking the question, are my best years behind me? It could be. Now I’ve said myself I don’t want to compete if my best years are behind me.
“You reach a point where your knowledge always grows but your physicality diminishes and I’m 39 years old, going to be 40 soon. If I would done something, I would have accepted something, it would need to be something that it’s really special for me. Really get me to the core of myself to get me the motivation. I don’t have the same motivation right now. It’s not appealing to me.”
