Tuesday brought a double dose of good news for Georges St-Pierre fans.
Following his dominant but grueling UFC 158 win over Nick Diaz on March 16 in Montreal, it was revealed by his trainer Firas Zahabi last week that St-Pierre had suffered a strained Achilles a couple of weeks prior to the bout, and he was not 100 per cent during their fight.
But according to UFC Canada, his manager Rodolphe Beaulieu has said he is doing fine now after taking part in some sprint training while on vacation.
At the UFC 158 post-fight press conference, St-Pierre said he wanted to take a longer-than-usual vacation to an “exotic place.” (After his win over Carlos Condit at UFC 154 in November, he went to Morocco for less than a week.) However, he said this vacation would be more mental than physical and that he still planned to train while on vacation.
Apparently he did and looked good doing it.
Next for St-Pierre will be a trip to L.A. to start filming for a role as a villain in next year’s super-hero movie sequel Captain America: The Winter Soldier, where he’ll play French martial arts practitioner Batroc the Leaper. The 31-year-old is also the subject of a new documentary scheduled to be released this year called “The DNA of GSP.”
As for what’s next in his fight career, St-Pierre will take on Johny Hendricks, and he opened as a slight favourite (-225) over Hendricks (+175). It is the closest line for St-Pierre since July 2009’s UFC 100, when he was a -270 favourite against Thiago Alves. This is not surprising, as many people believe Hendricks, an even more accomplished wrestler with powerful striking, will represent the biggest challenge to St-Pierre’s title in a long time.
The two are expected to meet in the fall and most likely in Las Vegas. UFC president Dana White said the organization needs to have their top pay-per-view draw back in their home base. St-Pierre hasn’t been featured on a Vegas show there since UFC 100, and the last time he headlined an event in the fight capital of the world was UFC 94 in January 2009.
The UFC 158 pay-per-view numbers were estimated to be over 800,000 buys, which was the most ever for a GSP-headlined event. Part of that was likely fuelled by the dramatic leadup to the grudge match between St-Pierre and Diaz. But it was no doubt also due to St-Pierre’s draw as one of its top fighters, especially in Canada, which was recognized Tuesday by the Globe and Mail in its “Power 50” list.
St-Pierre was ranked No. 15 on annual list, which ranks the people and players with the influence and desire to affect sport in Canada, with the description: “No one has done more to raise the profile of mixed martial arts in this country. After sitting out most of 2012 with a career-threatening knee injury, he returned to defend his title as UFC welterweight champion, and recently did so again — his 11th successive victory. He is one of Canada’s few bona fide international superstars, and has global reach.”
