Former welterweight and middleweight champion Georges St-Pierre is expected to announce his retirement from Mixed Martial Arts at a press conference tomorrow at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada.
The news was first reported by Benoit Beaudoin of the MMA podcast Dans La Cage, who suggests that the 37-year-old GSP’s decision came as the result of failed negotiations with the UFC that would have seen him go up against currently lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov.
While St-Pierre hasn’t yet confirmed his decision on social media, he did thank his long-time coach Firas Zahabi from the TriStar gym on Twitter yesterday.
“After all these years, we remain undefeated together. OSU Senseï @Firas_Zahabi 👊,” GSP wrote alongside a picture of himself smiling alongside Zahabi.
St-Pierre’s last fight came at UFC 217 against Michael Bisping, who was the middleweight champion at the time, back in 2017.
At that stage the Canadian superstar hadn’t fought for four years, yet he still looked in vintage form as he floored the British star and then submitted him by rear-naked choke in the third round.
However, just as he’d done with the welterweight title in 2013, St-Pierre then vacated the title after revealing that he was battling with ulcerative colitis, which had been diagnosed shortly after the fight.
Last year GSP stated that he was gradually getting his health back under control, but hadn’t committed fully to the idea of returning to the Octagon.
Now it seems that a fight with Nurmagomedov falling through has made up his mind that it’s time to hang up his gloves for good.
