UFC legend Georges St. Pierre has formally notified the UFC of his retirement, resulting in his removal from the USADA testing pool.
After announcing his retirement at a press conference in Montreal last month, UFC legend Georges St. Pierre has followed through. ESPN was first to report that GSP has served written notice of his retirement to the UFC, resulting in his removal from the USADA (U.S. Anti-Doping Agency) testing pool. While not unexpected, it eliminates any notion that St. Pierre might quickly reverse course and return later in the year for a money fight.
Athletes returning from retirement are required to re-enter the testing pool for a period of six months before returning to competition.
St. Pierre, in making his retirement official, leaves the sport as perhaps the only fighter with zero unavenged losses to have hit the levels he did. The unquestioned greatest welterweight of all time, GSP made nine consecutive title defenses at 170lbs between 2008 and 2013. He holds the record for most wins in title fights at 13, including his first stint as welterweight champ, and brief middleweight reign in 2017, after defeating Michael Bisping for the title. That win, one of his most impressive (and his last), came after a four year hiatus from the sport.
Throughout his twenty-eight fight career, St. Pierre fought the best competition from multiple eras. His only losses came to Matt Hughes, himself a UFC legend, and Matt Serra, in one of the most shocking upsets of all time. GSP would come back to defeat both of them, handily. Hughes he would defeat twice. Serra would fight just three more times after being stopped via knees by St. Pierre, losing twice then retiring from the sport.
When announcing his retirement, St. Pierre noted that he had sought out a fight with lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, but the UFC went another direction. He didn’t fully rule out a return in the right circumstances, but it’s likely the Canadian legend has hung up his gloves for good.
