Georges St. Pierre is on the verge of making his long awaited return to the Octagon. According to MMAFighting.com, multiple sources have confirmed that terms have been agreed to that will see the former welterweight champion and pound for pound great sign a new multi-fight contract with the UFC.
St. Pierre hasn’t fought since November of 2013 following a close decision win over Johny Hendricks that many felt he should have lost. Immediately after the fight, the Canadian superstar declared his intention to take some time off and later said he would not return until the UFC made serious changes in the way they handled their drug testing. At the time, fighters were only tested on the night of the fight, making it laughably easy to use performance enhancing drugs and not get caught.
The UFC added USADA drug testing last year, but new problems kept GSP from a return to the cage. A six year deal with Reebok prevented fighters from featuring other sponsors during fight week and in the cage. That affected St. Pierre’s multi-million dollar deal with Under Armour, but when Georges asked the UFC to make up the difference with a new deal, the UFC refused.
Things got to the point where Georges hired lawyers that declared him a free agent due to the UFC’s inability to offer him a fight. We’re sure there was a fierce legal back and forth behind the scenes, but now all that seems to be resolved. St. Pierre’s return could cause all sorts of changes to currently set plans. Before taking his break, he competed at 170 pounds, but has recently expressed interest in fighting 185 pound champ Michael Bisping. There’s also the glimmer of hope that we could finally see a superfight between St. Pierre and Anderson Silva … a good five years past when it would have been relevant, but still something we’d tune in to watch.
We imagine the UFC won’t waste much time getting GSP back into the cage following a signing. So stay tuned and we’ll let you know as soon as a first opponent is announced.
