Georges St-Pierre still plotting potential comeback but Dana White isn't buying it
Georges St-Pierre will begin a training camp after Thanksgiving to see if he's really ready to come back for another fight, but UFC president Dana White still isn't sold that the former welterweight champion will actually return.
St-Pierre's boxing coach Freddie Roach previously revealed that the Canadian fighter was planning on going through the rigors of a full camp to test whether or not he still had the desire to fight again.
Now that camp has officially been set up according to Roach and at the end of it, St-Pierre will make a final decision on fighting or retirement.
"He's very logical about (a possible return)," Roach told the LA Times. "He's going to have a six-week training camp. We're going to train every day like we're having a fight, and at the end of the six weeks, if he feels he has the desire to go on with it -- if he wants to fight -- then we will fight again. If he doesn't, we'll call it quits."
St-Pierre hasn't fought since UFC 167 in November 2013 when he defeated Johny Hendricks to retain his welterweight title for the ninth consecutive time.
Several weeks later, St-Pierre surrendered the title to take a sabbatical from the sport with no time limit set on whether he would actually return to action or not.
Now it appears he's contemplating another fight, but his promoter isn't buying it. White says that there's a certain desire that a fighter feels getting ready to step into the Octagon and it doesn't take a six-week camp to tap into it.
Either the fighter has that desire inside or they don't and White doesn't believe a training camp will convince St-Pierre one way or the other.
"I highly doubt it's going to happen because GSP's been off for too long and has a ton of money. You don't do a six-week camp to learn if you have the hunger. You either know it or not," White said. "Robbie Lawler knows it, he's hungry, he trains like an animal.
"You're either hungry and an animal or you're not."
When St-Pierre was still fighting he was one of the largest draws in the sport with his bouts usually getting some of the highest pay-per-view numbers for any headliner in the company.
His return would surely draw a lot of eyeballs, but White still doesn't believe that it's actually going to happen.
"It'd be great if he comes back, yes, I love Georges St-Pierre, amazing athlete, but comeback talk? I laugh at it," White said. "To be a world champion, you have to be hungry.
"That's not GSP. Not even close."
