UFC champ St-Pierre to be out of hexagon with ulcerative colitis
Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight champion and Quebec native Georges St-Pierre will be out indefinitely as he battles health issues, the mixed martial arts star announced on Saturday.
“The diagnosis is ulcerative colitis and I am now taking medication that will hopefully appease the symptoms,” St-Pierre, 36, wrote on his official Facebook page.
St-Pierre said he started experiencing the symptoms during his latest training camp.
After a four-year hiatus, StPierre won the UFC middleweight championship on Nov. 4 at New York’s Madison Square Garden.
“I hoped my condition would improve after the fight but, unfortunately, it got worse and I had to go straight to the hospital for a colonoscopy when I came back from vacation last Wednesday,” he wrote on Saturday. “My health is my No. 1 priority right now, I’m still a very happy man, thanks for your support!!!”
Ulcerative colitis is a long-term condition that results in inflammation of the colon, leading to severe abdominal pain and diarrhea.
The news was first reported by TSN on Saturday. According to the sports network, UFC president Dana White hasn’t given a time frame for St-Pierre’s return.
In an interview with the Montreal Gazette in mid-November, St-Pierre briefly acknowledged feeling sick before his championship bout with Michael Bisping.
“There was a lot of people, they were doubting me in my entourage … even my family. A lot of people, even my mentor Kristof (Midoux), he said: ‘You should not do it.’ Because also, I got sick, so some people told me to cancel the fight,” StPierre said when asked what he was most proud of following the fight.
“But I always believed in it and I stuck to it and when they were doubting me I saw it as a challenge, so it gave me more motivation.”
A native of St-Isidore, St-Pierre is a four-time UFC champion in two weight classes. His first three titles came as a welterweight.