Georges St-Pierre raises his hands to the crowd before stepping into the octagon.
Georges St-Pierre says he ‘should have retired after the Nick Diaz fight’
Georges St-Pierre wishes he walked away from MMA after he defeated Nick Diaz in 2013.
At UFC 158 in March, 2013, St-Pierre defeated Diaz by decision to defend his welterweight title for the eighth time. It was a dominant performance and he then fought again in November of 2013 where he barely edged out a split decision against Johny Hendricks at UFC 167. After the fight, he announced he would be taking a break, which he says he wishes he did after he defeated Diaz.
“I think I should have retired after the Nick Diaz fight (in March 2013),” St-Pierre said to Burt Watson in the latest “Legend 2 Legend” episode (h/t MMAJunkie). “I should have taken a break. If I would have done that, perhaps I would have come back earlier in my career, but I did not because I felt the need to always fight the next guy because there was always a next guy, and that’s how I realized as soon as you finish a fight, there’s a next one and a next one, because the sport of mixed martial arts is promoted about what’s next. It’s not promoted about what happened in the past. What’s next, what’s next, sell, sell, sell. We need to sell the next one, build up who’s the next big thing that can beat the champion.”
St-Pierre ended up making his return to the Octagon in November of 2017 where he moved up to middleweight and fought Michael Bisping for the middleweight title. It was an intriguing matchup and St-Pierre ended up winning by third-round submission. He later vacated the belt due to health issues and has since announced his retirement.
Despite announcing his retirement, he was linked to a super fight with Khabib Nurmagomedov but that never came to fruition. He was also close to boxing Oscar De La Hoya this year but the UFC blocked that from happening.
