St-Pierre plays down UFC return

MONTREAL Fans hoping to see Canadian Georges St-Pierre fight Conor McGregor or Khabib Nurmagomedov may be disappointed.

The former UFC welterweight and middleweight champion played down reports he was interested in meeting the winner of the Oct. 6 McGregor-Nurmagomedov showdown slated for UFC 229 in Las Vegas.

“I didn’t say I was going to do it,” St-Pierre said Thursday. “People headlined me the wrong way to sell articles. That’s the society we live in.”

After St-Pierre posted a photo of himself Sept. 2, fans noticed he had slimmed down, prompting speculation he could be preparing for a bout.

The 37-year-old St-Pierre (26-20) has not fought since November 2017, when he ended a four-year hiatus to submit middleweight titleholder Michael Bisping at UFC 217. One month later, the Montreal MMA star gave up his middleweight title and stepped away again after suffering from ulcerative colitis.

Despite being almost symptom free, St-Pierre remains cautious about his health,

“I don’t want to sign a contract for a fight right now,” he said. “I don’t want to say I’m going to commit to something. The minute I do it, the mental warfare starts.”

But he did not close the door on a potential return.

“I want to come back for a good fight,” St-Pierre said.

“I want to come back for a fight that I can win, that I can gain something in terms of legacy. Not only money, but in terms of legacy. Because I have a lot more to lose than to win.”

As for his new slimmer weight, St-Pierre says it’s due to intermittent fasting and diet. He says he wished he had done it prior to the Bisping fight when he moved from welterweight (170 pounds) to middleweight (185).

“For my fight with Michael Bisping, I was trying to put on weight but I did it the wrong way,” StPierre said. “I ate a crazy amount of food. I almost threw up sometimes, with the stress and everything it overused my digestive system.

“Although I was obsessed with trying to gain weight, I should not have done it.”