Georges St-Pierre retained the UFC welterweight title on Saturday night as he defeated Johny Hendricks by split decision, and the fight is still the talk of the mixed martial arts community.
While many people believe that Hendricks won the fight, two of the three judges scoring the fight for the Nevada State Athletic Commission had St-Pierre winning two of the three rounds.
The round that ended up deciding the fight was the opening round as only judge gave Hendricks the opening round. While I scored the round for Hendricks, I can see why two of the three judges (Sal D’Amato and Tony Weeks) scored the first round for St-Pierre.
After the decision was read, UFC color commentator Joe Rogan interviewed St-Pierre in the cage and the long time UFC champion stated that he is going to walk away from the sport for at least a little bit.
“I have a bunch of stuff in my life happening,” St-Pierre told Rogan. “I need to hang up my glove for a little bit. At least make a point of my life and hope my fans appreciate. I have to go away for a little bit at least and a lot of personal things happening and want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart to the UFC that gave me my chance.”
There was rumors of St-Pierre potentially retiring over the past couple of weeks, but most people believe that he would not retire. UFC President Dana White stated before UFC 167 that he did not believe that St-Pierre would walk away, no matter what happened on Saturday night.
Following the fight card, White was animated on the UFC 167 Post Fight Show on Fox Sports 1 and stated that St-Pierre owed it to the UFC to come back and have a rematch against Hendricks.
“GSP will not retire after that fight,” White told Fox Sports reporter Ariel Helwani. “He owes it to the fans, he owes it to this company and he owes it Johny Hendricks to come in and do that fight again.”
After hearing White make that statement, does St-Pierre owe it to the UFC to give Hendricks a rematch and come back?
He has competed in the UFC octagon twenty-one times and fourteen of those fights have been title bouts. Over the past year, St-Pierre has defended the UFC title three times and has done three “UFC Primetime” shows. Over the past three fights, he has taken 412 total strikes and 162 of those strikes have been considered significant strikes.
He admitted at the post fight press conference that he has trouble sleeping at night and that he didn’t know what he was going to do. However, White continues to proclaim that St-Pierre did not retire and his problems are not as bad as St-Pierre stated in the cage to Rogan.
Whatever the problems are for St-Pierre, White and the UFC should allow him time to take care of those issues. I am sure that people will dig into his personal life to find out what is going on. Personally, I don’t feel that is something that needs to be made public, unless St-Pierre wants that information to be known.
He does not owe the UFC anything. He has made the organization plenty of money over the years. St-Pierre is an independent contractor and it’s his decision on what to do, not Dana White, Lorenzo Fertitta, or anyone in the UFC.