UFC legend Georges St-Pierre is believed by many to be the greatest fighter of all time, but that wasn’t without serious difficulties.
The long-time welterweight champion who returned in 2018 to win the middleweight title defeated a laundry list of the sport’s greats, many of them multiple times. But he struggled at times to calm his nerves, and admits to have an ‘Obsessive Compulsive’ personality.
St-Pierre retired after winning a title in a second weight class from Michael Bisping at Madison Square Garden. But he has opted not to return since, and seems happy in his retirement now at the age of 43 after a number of opportunities to come back.
Georges St-Pierre lied to coaches during the peak of his UFC career
During a recent appearance on the Anik and Florian podcast, Georges St-Pierre noted that he would struggle to sleep in the lead-up to big fights and training sessions during his career. However, he claimed that when coaches would ask, he would lie due to fear over how it would be received.
Asked if he recalled a night where he felt his best during his career, the Canadian replied: “Everybody reacts differently under stress but for me, every morning that I was fighting, when I woke up I felt like s***.
I was like ‘goddamn, not today, I had a s****y night of sleep’ and I was just like ‘oh my God’. But I would use the theory of James-Lange, I would lie to myself, I would lie to my coaches and when they asked me how would I sleep I’d say ‘I slept great, I’m ready to kick a**!’
“I strongly believe that the way that you carry yourself has a big effect on your mental. I used that through all my career, even though I was terrified, I was extremely uncomfortable, I pretended to be invincible and to be 100 per cent sure that I was going to go out there and succeed.
“That was all a lie because deep down inside I was scared as hell… There’s no way you feel good if you don’t know if you’re going to be badly hurt, humiliated or win the title.”
Georges St-Pierre admits his ego made him struggle during UFC run
During his legendary run of results, there were a few occasions where GSP came up short. He was infamously knocked out by Matt Serra in 2007, and had previously been submitted by Matt Hughes a few years prior.
And he says that he never felt great heading into fights due to being unable to guarantee how the result would go despite all his hard work. “I will feel good if you tell me ‘Georges, you’re going to win 100 per cent’,” he joked.
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“Let’s say God would appear to me and say that, now I’d feel good, but there’s no way to know. So the uncertainty of not knowing if you’re going to be humiliated because what hurt the most for me is not physically, for me, I was afraid to get hurt by my ego was the thing that hurt the most.
“If I put that much work in and end up losing, coming up short in the end? Man, disappointing everybody who helped me? That was the thing that scared me the most and hurt me the most. So going out there I never felt 100 per cent because the feeling of uncertainty, for me, was unbearable.”
Georges St-Pierre suffered injury during training for grappling comeback last year
There have been numerous opportunities for St-Pierre to launch a fighting comeback after his last outing at UFC 217 in New York. At one stage he was offered a boxing exhibition with Oscar De La Hoya, but was not allowed out of his UFC contract in order to take the bout, which was promoted by Triller.
Instead, he decided last year to take on a grappling match, but was injured while training, which allowed him to realise his body can no longer keep up with his rigorous routine. “At the end of 2023 I was training for a grappling match,” he added.
“When I was training for that grappling match it was like a part of me re-emerged and mentally I am obsessive compulsive. When I train for a fight everything has to be perfect and I do not cut corners. I go crazy and I put everything I can to be the best I can.
“And I think that’s the reason I got hurt, to tell you the truth. It’s like my body can’t keep up any more, I can’t keep the same volume and intensity like I used to do when I was competing and for me it needs to be done if I want to give and showcase the best of myself.
“But I can’t do it, so I need to accept it and it’s hard. But I’ve made peace with it, though.”
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