Will St-Pierre return to the Octagon?
The former champ hasn’t fought since 2013, but a new bout would create huge payday
Anderson Silva says it would be an honour to fight him. Nathan Diaz believes he threw a monkey wrench into his potential return at UFC 196. His head coach, Firas Zahabi, believes a comeback in 2016 is possible, while another coach, Renzo Gracie, went on The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani on Monday and guaranteed it, suggesting an announcement would be coming soon.
The man everyone is talking about, of course, is former UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre, who has been on sabbatical since edging out Johny Hendricks in a hard-fought bout at UFC 167 on Nov. 16, 2013. Since then, there have been myriad rumours and rumblings about the French-Canadian standout returning to action, but nothing more.
At no point has St-Pierre stepped out and said, “I’m coming back.” There was talk of a six-week training camp to see if he still had the itch. His appearance at UFC 196 in Las Vegas had many wondering if a big-fight return was in the offing, but it was at least partly explained away as St-Pierre wanting to support his Tristar Gym teammate, Nordine Taleb, who picked up a secondround knockout win in the prelims, though even I think that’s a little too convenient.
In this time of the UFC making bigname fights above all, the allure of luring one of the biggest names in the sport’s history off the sidelines and back into the Octagon is understandable. Even though he hasn’t fought in more than two years, StPierre remains one of the most recognizable fighters in the world and his comeback fight would generate massive numbers at the box office and in pay-per-view buys.
But will he actually come back? If so, who should he fight — and are we sure it’s a good thing?
Honestly, there is too much smoke in the air right now suggesting StPierre will return, so that answers the first question. As for the second, there are matchups out there that make sense for him should he indeed opt to end his self-imposed hiatus.
Now would be a perfect time to put together a fight against Silva, which has long been the MMA equivalent of Mayweather-Pacquiao and would follow that boxing blueprint by coming several years after it would have been most exciting. They’re both still major names, the UFC now seems amenable to making catchweight fights and it would have no divisional impact, so the timing feels right.
Other options — like a fight against McGregor or either member of the Diaz family — will hold a lot of interest for casual fans and generate huge returns for the UFC, but they might be a misuse of the returning icon.
Personally, I don’t actually want to see St-Pierre return. He walked away on his own terms, citing a number of different concerns and with nothing left to prove. The division was already catching up to him when he exited and three years and an additional ACL repair later, it’s likely passed him by and the Canadian fan in me doesn’t want to see the man who put this sport on the map in this country as anything other than the conquering hero with a belt over his shoulder.
But chances are he’ll be back before the year is out.