Georges St-Pierre says he doesn't think he'll defend his UFC middleweight title
(image via TSN)
UFC middleweight champion Georges St-Pierre sounds like he could be done with his new division.
The greatest 170-pound fighter of all time was recently diagnosed with colitis, an inflammatory bowel disease, putting his fighting career into question. After four years away from the sport, the 36-year-old made his UFC return against reigning champ Michael Bisping Nov. 4 at UFC 217. St-Pierre scored a third-round rear-naked choke to capture the title, making him another rare two-divisional champ.
Speaking with TSN Wednesday, St-Pierre says he has serious doubts about his future at 185 pounds.
“We’ll talk about it, but I’m not sure if I compete I will go back at 185,” St-Pierre said. “I don’t think so.”
That could throw a major wrench into the UFC's title picture moving forward. As a result, interim middleweight champ Robert Whittaker may end up facing former champ Luke Rockhold at UFC 221 in February, but it's unclear if the title would drop its interim tag.
“Of course, in terms of weight, if I want to go back to compete at 185, I will - obviously eating, like I did what I did, I learned from my mistakes, I don’t think it’s a good thing to do, force myself to eat to gain muscle mass,” St-Pierre said. “I’ve always been against performance-enhancing drugs, and I did it the natural way. There is no easy way. I did it the hard way and it was to gain weight and to maintain my muscles mass and it was very hard and it was not healthy. I think the body has a natural weight it can perform at its best athletic ability and for me, the weight that I am now is my perfect weight.”
Bowel diseases like Crohn's and Ulcerative colitis make maintaining weight a complicated issue as it is, let alone trying to bulk by over-eating. Don't be shocked to see GSP drop back down to his long-time home in the welterweight division.
