Georges St-Pierre has a few words of wisdom for his fellow welterweight great.
Back in 2019, St-Pierre officially announced his retirement from MMA competition, a little over a year after his last fight at UFC 217. It was a memorable finale for “GSP,” who defeated Michael Bisping via third-round submission to claim the middleweight title. Not only was it St-Pierre’s swan song, it was also a comeback fight as he hadn’t fought in four years, and was best known for his legendary run atop the UFC’s welterweight division.
St-Pierre wrapped up his career with a 26-2 record, with both of those losses being avenged, and is widely regarded as one of combat sports’ greatest success stories. On a Kick broadcast with streamer Adin Ross, St-Pierre mentioned he recently spoke to Usman about how to have an optimal retirement.
“I was talking to Kamaru Usman,” St-Pierre said. “Kamaru, he’s in his late 30s and I said, ‘Man, I’ve been there and done that. Are you going to compete again?’ He said, ‘Yeah, I think I’m going to go for one more stretch.’ I’m like, ‘If you want my advice, Kamaru,’ because I like that guy, I said, ‘Do what you’ve got to do. Get it out of your system. But get out on top.’ That would be the cherry on top.”
Usman, 38, recently scored a win over Joaquin Buckley, snapping a three-fight losing streak stretching back to 2021. Having previously defended the welterweight title five consecutive times, Usman’s name still has plenty of cachet, and current champion Islam Makhachev has mentioned wanting to defend his belt against Usman, potentially at UFC White House in June.
St-Pierre never lost his welterweight title, instead vacating it in 2013 to take time off before his triumphant return against Bisping. He ended his competitive career on a 13-fight win streak and hopes Usman can also go out on a high note, not only to preserves his legacy, but to set himself up for the future.
“Not only it’s better for your health, also from a business perspective, when you’re an athlete, a fighter and you get out on top, when you get out champion, yeah, of course, you have the impression that you left money on the table,” St-Pierre said. “‘I should have, I could have done another one, another one.’ That’s our ego talking.
“The same thing happened to me, but what happens is you have a lot of opportunity that presents itself to you because your stock is worth a lot of money. So health-wise, it’s better, and also business-wise. Yeah, maybe the money it will stretch over a few more years, but imagine if you push it to the limit where you end up losing one, two, three fights straight, now your legacy and that money that you will have received for fighting, that block of money, maybe you will not have it at a stretch of a period of a long time and those opportunities would not be there let’s say I retired on a three-fight losing streak. Time catches everyone, I don’t care who you are. Time catches everyone.”
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