UFC superstar Georges St.Pierre has been out of the Octagon for almost a year now after stating that he wanted to take time out from the sport, but a sighting of the Canadian fighter meeting with UFC execs yesterday has fueled rumors that he may be set for a return to action in 2015.
“Walking around St-Antoine and peer into a window of resto, see Dana White and George St-Pierre and the others grabbing a bite,” Canadian journalist Steven Chmielash posted on Twitter yesterday.
The exact location was the ‘Torque’ restaurant in Montreal, Canada which just so happens to be GSP’s own hometown.
The UFC are staying tight lipped on the subject at this time, but a twitter message from Dana White confirmed both he and Lorenzo Fertitta were in Montreal yesterday.
“We flew to Chicago for a dinner meeting jumped back on the plane to Montreal for a breakfast meeting,” White wrote.
So, is GSP really on the verge of a comeback in the coming months?
At this stage it’s too early to tell one way or the other. A meeting is potentially a positive step forward, but as they did with Anderson Silva earlier this year, it’s possible they were just touching base with GSP to see where his head is at right now.
St. Pierre’s time off so far hasn’t gone exactly according to plan – he tore his ACL in March, so he had to undergo surgery and has had to spend time rehabing from that since.
He’s still being training as best he can though and in an interview last month in Canada he stated that was awaiting clearance to be able to train fully and revealed that he’d actually put on muscle mass since his last appearance in the UFC.
Significantly he also said that he hadn’t made a final decision on whether to hang up his gloves for good or not.
“I haven’t retired from fighting yet,” he said. “I still haven’t pulled the plug, but this [time off] is doing me lots of good at the moment.”
It would be an interesting time to come back if he does so as his friend and training partner Rory MacDonald now appears to be lined up with the next title shot in the division against the winner of the upcoming rematch between Johny Hendricks and Robbie Lawler in December.
During his long reign as champion before vacating his title GSP had vowed not to fight MacDonald, so that could definitely throws a spanner in the works if he intends to return in the early months of next year.
On the other hand, if he has bulked up during his time off then perhaps he is finally gearing up to make a move to middleweight, and with Anderson Silva set to make his comeback in January perhaps that elusive ‘superfight’ between them isn’t dead in the water just yet.
Anything’s possible – including retirement – so without any more information to go on at this time we’re just going to have to wait and see what happens.
