MMA legend Georges St-Pierre isn’t returning to the UFC just for the catering and senior’s run perks. According to the sport’s finest Canadian fighter (sorry Brock), he isn’t coming back to the Octagon® as a shell of his former self. In fact, he reckons he’s a quality of fighter that would hand classic era GSP an L. Seeing as prime GSP is considered one of the best of all-time, 2017 GSP is setting a pretty high bar for his comeback.
St-Pierre discussed his return in an interview with Hayabusa, a combat sports company that he has products with. Ring/Octagon rust won’t be an issue for the fighter from the sounds of things.
“I think for me it’s a good time to come back now because I’m 35-years-old,” shared St-Pierre. “I just finished a training camp that I did to see if I can come back to the world-class level and I feel at the best shape of my life.”
It’s not unreasonable to suggest that St-Pierre was in not-too-shabby shape when he held the welterweight title for roughly six centuries, although GSP is pretty bullish on the level he’s at.
“I feel better than I’ve ever been,” declared the Montrealer. “I feel that the Georges St-Pierre now would beat the Georges St-Pierre that was the greatest of the time that I used to compete. So I can’t wait to go back in there and show people, including myself – test my self, test my skill – to see how everything goes.”
Who his test will come across is still TBD. Middleweight champ Michael Bisping has been considered the leading candidate in some circles, although there’s a healthy bit of rumbling about potential fights with Nick Diaz, the one-time unthinkable superfight option in Anderson Silva and possibly a tilt with the UFC’s current money tree Conor McGregor. This seems like as good a time as any to point out that GSP’s last fight was way back in 2013 before Wolf of Wall Street hit theaters. It’s been a while.
(Via Bloody Elbow)
