Georges St-Pierre says tense moments with Dana White after UFC 167 have kept him from returning

Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) welterweight kingpin Georges St-Pierre recently opened up about his final fight in mixed martial arts (MMA) while speaking with Chael Sonnen on his "You're Welcome" podcast.

"I'm going to tell you the truth. If this whole thing had not happened after the fight... maybe I would have already been back and maybe I would have given the rematch to Johny Hendricks," St-Pierre said.

Wow. So just what went down that made the Canadian so upset?

According to "Rush" he had just finished receiving stitches from his five round war with Johny Hendricks at UFC 167 and was about to walk to the press conference when an employee stopped him and told he didn't have to attend.

"I say why? 'You know, you're not allowed to go, it's OK.' Then I understood, hm, something weird is going on," recalls St-Pierre of the Nov. 16, 2013 evening.

St-Pierre says he attended the press conference despite being told not to, and when he arrived he felt like UFC president Dana White was looking at him "weird."

"And then I found out Dana was saying I was gone to hospital and I was badly hurt. I was like, what is wrong with this? Because I didn't know what was going on."

At the time, St-Pierre said he didn't realize that both the fight and his sudden departure from MMA was controversial, but time and hindsight has offered the former champion a different view on things.

"I understand Dana was pissed because I was leaving with the belt. I got it. But he could have done it with a bit of better class, you know?"

St-Pierre says there are no hard feelings today and that White was only acting in his own self-interest as a fight promoter. He wasn't aware that the fight was close until he watched it later.

He understands some people think Hendricks won the fight, although St-Pierre is certain he won rounds one, three and five with significant strikes. Still, he allows the fight could have gone either way and that people may have been influenced by his battered face, adding he always bruises easily.

"Every fight, like, I have no idea. You're in the middle of a fight. You don't have time to judge, you're in survival mode, man. You don't know what's going on pretty much."

St-Pierre's striking coach, Freddie Roach, recently set the MMA world aflame by floating the idea that the welterweight could soon return to the UFC following a six-week training camp to determine if he still has the fire in his belly for more.

However, the Saint-Isidore, Quebec native admitted he hasn't begun the training camp, even though he's training twice a day at Tristar Gym in Montreal.

"I'm training because I love to train and I'm a natural competitor. When I go in the gym and I go train I like to pick on the best guys because I like to test myself, to become the best."

St-Pierre says he's in better shape now, at the age of 34, than he ever was as a UFC fighter because he trains just for the fun of it and has no stress from thinking about upcoming title defenses.

"The question is, if I go back to fighting would that fun leave or will I still have fun? I don't know."

If he does return, the 25-2 fighter says it would be to disprove his doubters, something he used to enjoy in the beginning of his career. However, he adds, at the end people no longer doubted he would win and would simply mock his achievements inside the Octagon.

"They would say he's not winning good enough. They was like, oh, he's going to go through five rounds again, he's boring."