Sonnen ‘Very Confident’ GSP Returns In 2020!

Photo by Don Arnold/WireImage

While former UFC welterweight and middleweight champion Georges St-Pierre is currently retired from the sport of mixed martial arts (MMA), there’s still a chance fight fans see the Canadian compete in 2020.

That’s according to former UFC fighter and current MMA analyst Chael Sonnen, who believes that St-Pierre will step foot inside of the Octagon sometime over the next 12 months. Sonnen doesn’t know when or how St-Pierre will make his return, but he remains confident that the former UFC champion will come back for one more contest.

“I don’t believe that for a second,” Sonnen said of St-Pierre’s retirement (shown above). “In fact, it’s the opposite. As we come to the new year I am very confident we’re going to see Georges St-Pierre in 2020. The only question is, where are we going to see him?”

St-Pierre, 38, officially announced his retirement from the sport this past February after a proposed superfight with current UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov failed to materialize. According to St-Pierre, who was last seen taking out Michael Bisping at UFC 217 to win the undisputed middleweight title, the promotion wasn’t interested in having him step in and take out the undefeated “Eagle.”

While nothing is set in stone, St-Pierre always seems to be leaving the door open for a potential comeback. And even though it would be great to see him drop down in weight to challenge the likes of Khabib or even Conor McGregor at 155 pounds, there’s plenty of opponents at the welterweight level that could spark St-Pierre’s interest. One being current UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman, who would love the chance to fight “Rush” after successfully defending his title against Colby Covington this past December.

“We know he’s in the gym,” Sonnen said of St-Pierre. “We’ve seen the pictures. His coach has come out and talked about it. We know all of these things.

“There is something about how he all of the sudden went a little bit quiet at the same time that Conor [McGregor] came back at the same time that [Jorge] Masvidal’s now the biggest star in the sport, at the exact same time that [Kamaru] Usman is looking for an opponent, and the true No. 1 contender, who is Colby Covington, happens to have a broken jaw right now, and you’ve got a 155-pound title that’s going to be contested in April between Tony and Khabib,” he added.

“There just seems like a lot of spots where the great St-Pierre could fill in, and he happened to shut his mouth right as all those pieces are coming together.”

With McGregor set for his own Octagon return later this month at UFC 246 the promotion would likely welcome GSP back with open arms in effort to make 2020 the most productive year in company history. But we’ve been down this road before only to be disappointed by the inability of St-Pierre and UFC to actually get a deal done.

Fight fans will have to wait and see how things shake out in the first half of 2020 before they start counting on a grand return from the great GSP.