Georges St-Pierre fires back at Dana White after recent comments
Georges St-Pierre is ready to resume his career whether UFC president Dana White believes him or not.
White recently stated when speaking to Colin Cowherd that he just wasn't a believer when it came to St-Pierre's desire to come back while also needling the former welterweight champion for not having what it takes to compete anymore.
"Georges St-Pierre doesn't have that 'I want to be a world champion' attitude anymore. He doesn't have that drive and that desire that he once had," White said. "And if you don't have that, no, you shouldn't fight."
Well, St-Pierre was listening and when he appeared on "UFC Tonight" on Wednesday, he responded to White while also acknowledging that the comments likely came from a negotiating stand point as much as the president's personal feelings on the matter.
Unfortunately, St-Pierre refuses to be goaded into a bad deal just to make his return to the UFC so instead he offered a challenge to White if he really wanted to find out how serious he is about fighting again.
"He doesn't know anything about me," St-Pierre said about White. "I'm a smart guy.
[pullquote align="center" attribution="— Georges St-Pierre"]I'm not the kind of guy you're going to say that (about) and OK I'm going to sign, I'm going to fight for peanuts! No, I'm a smart person, it doesn't work on me these things. I'm going to tell him something to Dana, let me fight once and you'll see in the first minute of the fight that what you just said is wrong.[/pullquote]
As far as White's comments regarding St-Pierre's desire to become world champion again, the former welterweight king responded to those allegations as well.
While St-Pierre said numerous times that his return to action isn't predicated on winning the title again, he's more than happy to beat current champ Tyron Woodle if that's what it's going to take to prove White wrong.
"Let me fight Tyron Woodley then, we'll see if I want to be world champion again," St-Pierre said. "I understand what he means. I'm not angry at Dana. He does what he does for the best of his interest. I do what I do for the best of my interest. One day when all that's over, we'll probably be friends like most of the guys I fought.
"But now, it's like a game. He's doing his game, I'm doing mine. We work for the best of our interests. Let me fight once and you'll see. You'll see after the first minute, he'll be like 'oh yeah, he's serious'."
St-Pierre made it clear that his return to the UFC will happen as soon as the organization is willing to meet him on the demands he has for a new contract to fight again.
When St-Pierre last competed in 2013, the UFC didn't have an exclusive clothing deal with Reebok and fighters were still able to wear sponsors into the Octagon. At the time, St-Pierre was one of the highest paid fighters on the roster but he also made a lot of money from endorsements that would no longer be allowed in the cage.
From the sound of things, St-Pierre just wants to be compensated for the money he would be losing by no longer having those sponsors on board so it's an ongoing negotiation with the UFC to get the deal done.
"If you see it from my perspective, I'm making a lot of money now even though I'm not fighting," St-Pierre said. "My contract is old. My contract was made before the Reebok deal and what we asked basically because if I go back to fighting, I cannot advertise my sponsors so I'm losing money if I go back to fight on the old term of my contract. So it's reasonable. Just waiting to see what's going to happen."
St-Pierre stated that his agent has reached out to the UFC again just recently to try and strike a deal but the organization is also under new ownership so there hasn't been a response as of yet, but he's hopeful that things will eventually come together.
"I want to get back, I want to come back. They know the term that I want and trust me, I'm very reasonable," St-Pierre said. "It's up to them. My agent tried to reach them, but they are hard to reach. I guess they're going to come back soon. We will see."
