Last week when UFC president Dana White tweeted about heading to Montreal and somehow managing to show up at the same restaurant as former welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre (wink, wink), the MMA populous immediately made the leap from "having a meeting" to "planning his comeback fight."
When White told UFC.com on Friday that St-Pierre had been medically cleared to resume training, it was reshaped into a series of "St-Pierre on the comeback trail" stories that assume his return is a forgone conclusion.
Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t, but what I want to know is why everyone is in such a rush to see Georges St-Pierre return to the Octagon.
Personally, I hope he stays retired. It’s not because I secretly hate MMA and don’t want people to have nice things, though some are sure to see it that way. If anything, it’s the exact opposite.
It’s no fun watching your heroes fade before your eyes, and even though St-Pierre is one of the most complete fighters and strategists to ever grace the Octagon, you have to question what "Rush" still has left to offer at this stage of his career.
He’s 33 years old and coming off surgery to repair a torn ACL in his left knee. In addition to having been on the sidelines for the last several months as a result of that injury, St-Pierre is also nearly a full year removed from his last bout — a fight many observers feel he lost — and has now had reconstructive surgery on both knees.
Even if you feel the judges delivered the correct verdict in handing St-Pierre a split decision win over Johny Hendricks at UFC 167 last November, it was obvious that the French-Canadian superstar wasn’t the same fighter that had previously dominated the welterweight division.
That’s not a dig at GSP either.
It’s impossible to continue to perform at that kind of elite level for an extended period of time. Eventually, Father Time and the rest of the championship calibre fighters in the division catch up with you, and we’ve seen it innumerable times with UFC fighters and world-class athletes from other sports.
Wayne Gretzky is the best hockey player in NHL history, but even "The Great One" lost a step in his final season.
Kobe Bryant will probably will his way to averaging 25 points per game this season for the Los Angeles Lakers, but after having played just six games last year and coming off two major injuries, no one is anticipating an MVP-type performance from "The Black Mamba."
St-Pierre was never a power guy — he’s always relied on superior technique and skill, part of which is predicated on his ability to control where the fight takes place. He wasn’t able to do that as effectively against Hendricks last year and it nearly cost him the welterweight title. Having undergone another major knee surgery and celebrated another birthday, I just can’t see him returning to the form he displayed prior to the first knee injury.
Call me selfish, but I don’t want St-Pierre’s final appearance in the Octagon to look anything like the last time Royce Gracie graced the eight-sided cage he made famous. Granted, Gracie’s bout against Matt Hughes at UFC 60 came 11 years after he’d fought Ken Shamrock to a draw at UFC 5, but the fact remains that his final bout still ended with him face down in the centre of the Octagon on the business end of a beating.
Would that happen to St-Pierre? It’s impossible to say for sure, but the fan in me has no interest in finding out.
There is nothing left for him to prove — St-Pierre is already the greatest welterweight in MMA history and his place in the pantheon of all-time greats is secure. While the competitive fires may still burn, that fight with Hendricks showed the field was starting to catch up to him and coupled with this most recent injury, it’s reasonable to assume the gap has been completely closed.
Furthermore, the UFC needs to move forward and continue building new stars, not sit with fingers crossed hoping its most popular fighter decides to return to the cage. A St-Pierre return would certainly be a major story, but it would also take some of the attention away from the likes of Hendricks, Robbie Lawler and Rory MacDonald, who have emerged as the top names in the welterweight division during his absence.
Here’s the other thing: GSP hasn’t commented on this situation yet, so why not hold off on the "he’s coming back" stories until after the man himself makes his intentions known.
For one thing, St-Pierre has gone on record that part of the reason he’s taken this sabbatical is because of what he feels is a major issue with performance-enhancing drugs in the sport and that he would only consider coming back once it has been cleaned up. While the UFC is certainly making strides in the right direction, that will always be an uphill battle.
On top of that, the former welterweight champion doesn’t strike me as the type of fighter that is going to come back unless he knows he’s capable of competing at the highest level. My guess is that the Tristar Gym staple is brutally honest in his self-assessments as well, so he’ll truly have to believe that he’s returning at the elite level in order for him to come back.
Right now, all anyone can do is speculate about whether or not St-Pierre will come back and cast his or her vote for or against his potential return.
My name is E. Spencer Kyte and I don’t want to see Georges St-Pierre make a UFC comeback.