Trained killers just wanna have fun.
Georges St-Pierre is still giving absolutely nothing away about his future in MMA, but arguably the greatest fighter ever has shed more light on his decision to take a (possibly permanent) hiatus from the UFC during a recent interview on “Undeniable with Joe Buck”.
The former welterweight champion admitted that his obsession with winning along with the pressure of being at the top of the game for so long had resulted in the taste of victory turning to ashes in his mouth. (Transcription by Fox Sports)
“The last two or three fights, I didn’t have fun. I did it because I had to, not because I wanted to and I had too much pressure, too much criticism, too much things for too long and it’s very hard when you’re world champion, all your life is directed (on that). Especially for me with my obsessive-compulsive disorder.”
“I wanted to be the best in the world so everything I do, it’s directed on that. That’s all that mattered for me. I needed to step out of if to have a normal social life. To take a mental break of all that.”
GSP also alluded to a sort of Rocky III type effect sucking all the fun out of his passion. Rush explained that the more money he earned in the sport, the more difficulties he faced, quoting the great philosopher Biggie Smalls to back up his argument.
“The thing that happened, when I first started doing this sport in the beginning I didn’t have any money. I was doing it for the love and the passion of the sport. I really liked what I was doing. It was money, but I was not a wealthy person and I was doing it for the fun.”
“Then the fun became a business. It became a lot of money and business involved, other kinds of problems that comes with that. (Notorious) BIG, the rapper said ‘more money, more problems’, which is true. So the fun became a business and the business became stressful.”
In the end, the pressure became too much and shortly after successfully defending his title against Johny Hendricks, St-Pierre vacated his belt and went on a hiatus/possibly retired.
“The stress became the brick that I’m carrying on my shoulder all the time. I decided to take that brick and put it down and try to step out of the sport instead of try to carry it as long as I can and maybe lose a fight and get beat up bad.”
