Georges St-Pierre continues to be one of the most outspoken fighters against performance enhancing drugs.
The former welterweight champion left the sport for years in part because he was unwilling to participate in a system that was easy to game by cheaters. USADA may have convinced him to come back, but he’s still very aware of methods some fighters may take to microdose steroids and get away with it.
So you shouldn’t be surprised that GSP would be against PED users being included in ‘greatest of all time’ discussions. He recently spoke with MMA Fighting on the subject, and while he was unwilling to specifically call out Jon Jones, he did say having all this performance enhancing drug craziness in your past should disqualify you from GOAT status.
”With people, they think it’s only affecting strength and conditioning and stuff like that,” St-Pierre said. “No, it doesn’t. It’s not only recuperation — it changes the person entirely. It makes him a better athlete. And yes, I think they should be removed from the [GOAT discussion].”
“It’s very hard to say that because a lot of people, they work hard. We know if they got caught once or twice, but we don’t know if they’re all taking it for all of their life or not, so it’s a hard topic to say. It’s not black or white. It’s grey.”
While figuring out what to discount legacy wise may be grey, the advantages steroids give you are black and white according to GSP.
”I’ve trained with them, and you could see a huge difference,” he said. “Like, when you grapple with them, it’s not even the same guy. It’s like if you’re taking two different human beings. It’s completely insane.”
“Just look at the difference with some of the — I’m not saying any names, because I don’t want to attack an individual, I want to change the system — just look at the difference with some people. Look, I remember there was a fight between two opponents, and one guy said, ‘Oh, it’s not the performance-enhancing [drugs] that threw the kick. It’s me.’ Actually, it’s not true. That’s the performance-enhancing drugs that threw the kick, because you wouldn’t have thrown the kick [like that] if you would have not taken them. You know what I mean? So to give you an example, it makes you more creative, it makes you more hungry. It changes the physique. Also, not only the physique, it changes the mind of the person.”
As far as Jones specifically, St-Pierre returned to the shades of grey talk while also supporting USADA’s willingness to trade suspension time in exchange for snitch testimony.
”That’s how they do it in the U.S.” he said.