GSP: ‘I Miss The Feeling Of Winning’

The Canadian legend considers his new place in the UFC Hall of Fame and shares the turmoil that gripped him every time he fought.

For a guy who is retired, Georges St-Pierre sure does train a lot. Take a peek at his social media accounts and you’ll see a man who is still in top physical shape at 39 years old. Even as he quarantined after a vacation in the United Arab Emirates, he was still doing gymnastics and handstands in his house to stay fit and physically active. Now that he’s done, he’s shovelling snow at the track field so he can do sprints with his strength and conditioning coach Jonathan Chaimberg.

We’d suggest that Georges staying in peak physical condition suggests he may be preparing for a possible superfight with ‘retired’ lightweight champ Khabib Nurmagomedov, and maybe he is. But it’s not the full story. Georges is simply an obsessed individual, practically OCD in his nutrition and training regiments. Just because he stopped getting paid by the UFC to be a champion, doesn’t mean he stops doing all the things that made him a champion.

In May of 2020 the UFC added St-Pierre to the UFC Hall of Fame, and in some subsequent interviews just released on UFC.com Georges reflected on the influences that inspired him to fight and his thought on being an influence himself. He also delved deeper on his dislike for the actual fighting part of his job, which we think is something to consider when gauging his interest in fighting Khabib on the verge of turning 40.

“I never liked to fight, and I’m not lying when I say it,” St-Pierre told Thomas Gerbasi. “I never enjoyed my time in the Octagon, never a second. I did it because I loved to win, I loved the benefits of it, and I loved the freedom. Back then, I was young, there was the money, the girls, the fame, the access to things nobody had. It was the freedom, that’s why I did it. I never did it because I loved to compete and fight. I hated it to the highest level. It’s so stressful that it was unbearable for me. However, I loved the rewards.”

“The greater the risk, the bigger the reward, and that’s why I did it, and I was very good at it and I took advantage of it. Now, I miss the rewards, I miss the feeling of winning. But I don’t miss the feeling of fighting, not even a second.”

“In my early fights, before the fight I would go to eat with my friend David Loiseau, and I was crying,” he continued. “‘This is my last one, I promise, I’m not made for this. I hate this stressful life.’ And he was saying the same thing. Then after the fight, we’d look at each other when we won and were like, ‘Yeahhhh, when is the next one? We love it.’ How crazy is this?”

“It’s a very weird thing and I can’t really explain it. I love it, but I hate it at the same time. It’s a crazy lifestyle. The outcome could be so negative for your well-being, but the rewards of it are so great. It’s a crazy gamble. It’s like going all-in every time. I love training, I love the lifestyle, I love everything about it, but the night of the fight, it’s very stressful and I don’t miss that.”

Georges’ name keeps coming up in regards to Khabib coming out of retirement, but unfortunately for fans who are down to see it, there’s one important person who is very uninterested in the idea: UFC president Dana White. He’s probably sitting around all tomato headed, pissed off at the mild mannered Canadian for making Khabib vs. McGregor 2 more of a headache to put together than he thinks it should be. Because of White, we think it’s a long shot Khabib vs. GSP goes down, which considering how stressed fighting makes Georges, may not be the worst thing in the world.