Georges St-Pierre is calling it a career. During a press conference held this morning, the 37-year-old former two-division champion announced his retirement from mixed martial arts.
"There's no tears. I'm very happy to do it," St-Pierre said early Thursday morning.
"It takes a lot of discipline to retire on top. It was a long process in my mind, but it's time to do it. Only a few people have done it."
Georges St-Pierre will go down as one of the greatest mixed martial arists of all time and easily one of the most dominant UFC welterweights of all time. Between 2008 and 2013, he defended the 170-pound title a record nine consecutive times. He voluntarily vacated the belt in December 2013 when he decided to take some time away from the sport.
St-Pierre returned to the Octagon in November 2017 at UFC 217. In his first fight in nearly four years, St-Pierre submitted Michael Bisping at UFC 217 to win the middleweight belt and become a two-weight champion. The following month, after just 34 days of holding the belt, St-Pierre announced he was also vacating the middleweight title due to injury. Suffering from ulcerative colitis, St-Pierre didn't want to hold up the middleweight division.
"I always said I wanted to retire on my own and not be told to retire," he added.
"It takes discipline. In combat sports, that's how you should retire. You should retire on top. That is very hard to do. I'm happy I have the discipline and the wisdom to do it."
During the press conference he did address the speculation of a match against undefeated lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov. It sounded like both St-Pierre and Nurmagomedov were up for the fight, but the promotion had "other plans."
"We tried to organize the fight. I know Khabib wanted it and I wanted it, but the UFC has other plans. For me, it's about taking one fight at a time, instead of being there for several fights. The way the business works, I believe, if the UFC promotes someone, they want to keep him there -- to have a guarantee. I don't have that same motivation. I knew [Nurmagomedov] wanted to fight me, and his message excited me. Unfortunately, it takes two fighters and also an organization to make that fight happen. The UFC has other plans for Khabib, and I wish him the best of luck."
Georges St-Pierre retires tied with Michael Bisping for the second-most wins in UFC history (20), behind active lightweight Donald Cerrone (22). He has an overall professional record of 26-2 (losses to Matt Hughes and Matt Serra). He did avenge both losses in later rematches with both opponents.
"Georges has cemented his legacy as one of the pound-for-pound greatest fighters ever," UFC president Dana White said in a statement.
"He beat all the top guys during his welterweight title reign and even went up a weight class to win the middleweight championship. He spent years as one of the biggest names in MMA and remains one of the best ambassadors for the sport. He put Canada on the MMA map."