Ever since former UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre vacated his title in December, he’s kept a low profile. On Tuesday, GSP spoke with some reporters in Quebec and dropped a heavyweight-sized bomb regarding issues the ex-champ had with the drug testing in MMA.
“It bothered me enormously.
That’s one of the reasons why I stopped fighting. Not really to teach them a lesson, because that would also punish me. I wanted to do something for the sport. I love the sport. I see the direction it’s going, and I don’t think it makes any sense. This is stupid.
I tried to do something to change the sport. Unfortunately, there were other people, for different reasons, maybe for money, in fear of losing money, because if you canceled the fight because someone tested positive there are millions of dollars [lost]. Also, the sport’s image … If you start testing everyone, how many will get caught? I don’t want to say in public because I don’t want to accuse anyone, but the sport’s image will be hurt.
Don’t forget, I have internal information. I’m an athlete. I know what goes on, so that disappointed me greatly.”
St. Pierre’s biggest issue seems to stem from Dana White’s casual dismissal of the fiasco that resulted in Georges pushing for (And even offering to cover all costs of) VADA (Voluntary Anti-Doping Association) testing for his fight against Johny Hendricks at UFC 167. Hendricks had initially agreed, then backed out before asking for WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) testing, claiming VADA might not be impartial since GSP was paying them. White felt that the testing provided by the Nevada Athletic Commission was enough to handle any potential doping issues. St. Pierre also added,
“The only thing I want to say is, I wanted to do something to help those who are honest in the sport. Believe me or not, I never took drugs in my life. I’ll take a lie detector test, I don’t care. I’m for anti-doping tests. I think it’s a big problem in the sport.
This is a relatively new sport. There’s one organization that has a monopoly, so the fighters don’t have much power. They can’t really talk because if one says what he thinks, he will get punished.
If we want the sport to be accepted worldwide, like baseball, hockey, football, soccer, I believe [drug testing] is the thing to do. I think it’s just a matter of time before it happens, it’s just that I tried to make it happen now. Maybe they didn’t like the idea because if I did it now, it would lead to others doing it and maybe that’s not something they wanted to happen.
It disappointed me. You know that there are things I can’t say. I’m holding back. I’m a public person.”
As can be expected, once Dana White got wind of this, he wasn’t very happy, dismissing the bulk of St. Pierre’s statements as Georges being upset about Dana thinking Hendricks won the fight during the UFC 167 post-fight press conference. Regarding the monopoly comment, Dana said,
“And then as far as the other thing he said, that we’re a monopoly? Viacom is a competitor. They have a $40 billion market cap. Forty. Billion. Dollars. Okay, I’m never going to see $40 billion as long as I live. Neither will the UFC. So, we’re not a monopoly either. Everything Georges St-Pierre said is a little kooky.”
This is in bit of a contrast to the last time Dana spoke on Bellator (Which is a Viacom entity), where he said that,
“I don’t care what they’re doing. It doesn’t matter to me.
I don’t give a s–t what they’re doing. They don’t matter and I don’t care.”
So Bellator doesn’t matter, and they aren’t worth caring about, yet the UFC is not a monopoly because, in theory, Viacom could leverage all $40 billion into becoming a MMA powerhouse.
Also, GSP is saying “kooky” things and the whole thing is “a little weird”, yet at the UFC 167 pre-fight media scrum, Dana lauded Georges, stating that “nobody has been easier and more professional to deal with”.
I think that chunk of words goes directly into the “Dana White Says a Lot of Things” bin, along with “Nate Marquardt is never fighting for the UFC again” and pretty much everything else he has ever said.
To his credit, White correctly pointed out that last month, a potential fight of the year candidate in Mark Hunt versus Antonio Silva took place in Australia, which doesn’t have its own athletic commission, so the UFC handles drug testing, and Silva did test positive for elevated testosterone, which resulted in his half of the Fight of the Night bonus check going directly into Hunt’s pocket.
The most damning piece of evidence, though, may come from that bastion of integrity, Reddit. Someone going by the nom-de-tube of ‘mmathrowaway13’ revealed this nugget yesterday:
“Yes that was me.
And ill tell you another rumor I heard coming out of tristar and i just heard this earlier today. I wasent going to say anything cause nobody believed me last time but screw it. GsP has real hard evidence that Hendricks was on PEDs. That is just a rumor and it is secondhamd info so once again take this as you will but here it goes.
The guys are saying that prior to fighting hendricks gsp’s team hired a private investigator to follow him around for weeks prior to the fight. Apparently he didnt get any actual footage of johny doing anything wrong BUT the guy went through the garbage cans at johnys gym/house whatever and collected needles. And apparently the needles tested positive for a two types of steroids, water based and oil based.
Nott bulletproof. But its damning.
Apparently he cant say this or release it or he would be in breach of his contract. The guys say if gsp lost he was going to release it anyway and be done with the ufc. Now apparently hes planning on using it as leverage In an Internal dispute.”
As Georges himself my say, LE GASPEUX!
