Michael Bisping explains why fighters should follow GSP’s example
Georges St-Pierre announced his retirement not even a week ago from MMA. He may very well go down as one of the greatest of all-time. Not only was he a dominant fighter, but the way he handled himself outside of the Octagon was exceptional. The Canadian rarely trash-talked and was an advocate of drug testing in the sport.
Yet, even though he handled himself so professionally, his last opponent, Michael Bisping still had tons of trash-talk for GSP. Well, speaking on his Believe You Me podcast, Bisping believes all fighters should look up to GSP and how he handled himself. Bisping, like many fighters, thinks St-Pierre was nothing but class during his time in the UFC.
“I just want to say, listen, Georges St-Pierre, absolute legend of the sport,” Bisping said (transcript via MMA Fighting). “Absolute legend. God bless and good luck in everything that you do from here on out. I always said that Georges St-Pierre was the person that a young fighter should model themselves after. They really should. Always strive to learn new training methods. Training smart, fight smart, professional in and out of the cage.
“Of course I talked a ton of sh*t leading up to the fight because that’s what you’ve got to do to make it interesting,” Bisping continued. “But I had a lot of respect for GSP. That’s not to say I fabricated everything. I meant what I was saying to him at the time. We’re gonna fight, he thinks he can beat me? I take that personally.”
While all the trash-talk leading up to the fight was to sell the fight. Bisping also joked he would have beat St-Pierre if he wasn’t dealing with injuries.
“Had I not had a bad eye and broken ribs, I would’ve beat you. So you got lucky Georges,” Bisping joked. “Bum knee, bum ribs, bum eye, my wrist, I mean Jesus Christ it’s amazing that I made it to the octagon. Not to take anything away from Georges because that’s not what I’m trying to do here. These are just facts.”
No matter what, St-Pierre handled himself professionally his entire career and frankly, as Bisping said, fighters should follow his lead.
