Georges St. Pierre Announces Retirement: UFC Shocker
By Sean Farrell
Georges St. Pierre the UFC’s golden boy has recently discussed his retirement from mixed martial arts. The current UFC Welterweight Champion, Georges St-Pierre said that he is ready to retire once he’s considered the sport’s pound for pound king, a title Anderson Silva currently holds.
Although this is stunning, St-Pierre said he’s not quite to the top of the heap yet. Usually money is the primary factor but this isn’t GSP’s primary concern, he wants to go out on his own terms his own way. “People are going to be shocked,” GSP stated of his plan for retirement.
Georges St-Pierre is currently 20-2 in MMA and 15-2 in the UFC, and has redeemed those two losses as well. GSP is next scheduled to face Jake Shields at UFC 129 in April in St. Pierre’s native Canada.
In fact, St-Pierre said his potential retirement decision recently came up while he was setting goals for the remainder of his MMA career. “Growing up in my career, I always fix my goals very high,” GSP said. “And every time I achieve one of my [goals], I fix another goal to reach. It’s important as a martial artist [never to be] satisfied because otherwise there is no point to keep doing what you’re doing.” As to what GSP has remaining on his to do list, there are actually a few.
St-Pierre has reached what he originally set out to do, become a professional fighter, get to the UFC, and become a UFC champion. The one goal he is yet to achieve is being considered the best fighter in the world pound for pound? That’s the one goal he personally feels he hasn’t attained yet. St. Pierre recently tied former UFC champion Matt Hughes’ five consecutive successful title defenses record when he decimated Josh Koscheck.
Many believe that GSP already has cleaned out his division. GSP has already beaten all the division’s top contenders for his title Josh Koscheck, Jon Fitch, Thiago Alves and Dan Hardy there is simply no one left to fight. UFC President Dana White said recently before Fight for the Troops 2 that if Anderson Silva and GSP were successful in their upcoming bouts they will put on the superfight of all superfights and crown a pound for pound king once and for all. It was only a matter of time until GSP was going to be pointed in the direction of a middleweight showdown against current champion Anderson Silva. This would be GSP’s final step to the top of the pound-for-pound ladder.
Silva is widely considered the holder of that unofficial title and it’s hard to argue. But, Georges St-Pierre knows he could snatch it away by beating him but would have to move up to 185 pounds from 170 where he currently fights. “If I go up in weight, it’s going to be hard to go down,” he said. “If I put on lean muscle like I already did recently … it’s going to be hard to come back down. So it’s not like I go up and I go down. I have to be very careful with what I do.” So expect a St. Pierre move to 185 to be permanent if and when it does happen, most likely towards the end of his career. Even if St-Pierre takes a few welterweight fights in the next year or two there is a good chance Silva will still be the pound for pound king at that point. GSP then would consider moving up to middleweight to fight him. And if St. Pierre so happens to defeat Silva, that’s a win worthy of retirement. “If one day I fight at 185 pounds for a superfight to know who is the best pound for pound in the world, (and) if I reach my goal, then my goal will be reached,” St-Pierre said. “There will be no point for me to still compete because I’m not going to have a goal left.”
St. Pierre also said he wants his and his family’s financial future secured before he takes the risk of moving up, though money and fame aren’t his driving forces in his career, this is a highly intelligent move on his part. “Of course, the money’s there,” GSP stated and went on to say “The difference between me and a lot of fighters … (is that) a lot of fighters fight for the fame. They fight for the money. Yeah, the money is there. It’s pleasant. The money is there. It’s good that I have this security. I have a lot of money now. It’s good. But there are a lot of things I can do outside of mixed martial arts…because of the name that I reached with MMA, that the UFC helped me to have. The fame is the same thing. I didn’t have it in the beginning, and now I have it. But if one day I reach my goal of becoming the best pound for pound (fighter) of all-time, it will be time for me to retire. But I don’t know right now, at 29 years old, if I want to retire. So it’s better I have to stick around.”
St. Pierre has reached the likes of Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather in boxing, with no one worthy of fighting why not consider hanging it up and venture into other personal endeavors or dreams they may have? GSP is 29 years old, and already has the security to quit work whenever he sees fit. The reason he hasn’t yet is he’s a fighter and he wants to be the best, but once that is attained there is no reason to prove it any longer. St. Pierre might as well walk away on top of the mountain much like Lennox Lewis did, so he isn’t remembered as someone who tried to hang on for to long.