Sounds like Georges St. Pierre was a hot mess leading up to his decision to walk away from the fight game.
Aside from getting buried under a mountain of personal problems (like these), the former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) welterweight champion was suffering from constant headaches, which is exactly the kind of thing that has the mixed martial arts (MMA) industry on Capitol Hill.
From his striking coach Freddie Roach:
"He told me he wanted to take two years off and I told him two years was retirement. Let's stick with one year right now and see how you feel and if you feel hungry enough to get back in there, we'll do it. If not, we'll call it a day. He had headaches and so forth. You don't want to hear that. It's really easy to make a decision after a tough fight like that and after Dana talking really bad about him, getting him depressed and so forth, dragging him down. Most promoters would try to build you back up, but Dana's not that kind of cat. I'd think about going to another company if that was me, but UFC is a monopoly, it's the only game in town. I'm sure if he wants to come back, Dana will be the first one to invite him."
St. Pierre skipped town last November after successfully -- and controversially -- retaining his 170-pound title against Johny Hendricks in the UFC 167 main event. His failure to reach an agreement on drug testing also led to his mounting frustrations, which took him out of the cage and put him into awkward night club encounters.
Until he comes back, his contract is indefinitely frozen.
In his absence, Hendricks will fight Robbie Lawler for the vacant 170-pound title in the main event of UFC 171 next month in Dallas, Texas (details). Could the winner make his first title defense against a returning St. Pierre? We're likely to find out sooner, rather than later.
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