Georges St-Pierre has officially taken all the necessary steps to indicate his retirement is the real deal.
After hosting a press conference this past month in Montreal to announce he was hanging up his gloves for good, the former UFC middleweight and welterweight champion has now given the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) notice of his retirement.
St-Pierre (26-2 MMA, 20-2 UFC) was required to provide a written notice of his retirement to USADA so he could be taken out of the drug-testing pool. That step was completed as of Tuesday, according to a report from ESPN.com.
Although he has competed just once since November 2013, St-Pierre never considered himself a retired athlete. After vacating the 170-pound title following a defense against Johnny Hendricks at UFC 167, he would take a nearly four-year hiatus from the octagon.
“Rush,” who owns numerous UFC records including most strikes landed, most takedowns landed and most championship-fight victories, made his highly anticipated comeback at UFC 217 in November 2017, moving up from his longtime home of welterweight to challenge then-champ Michael Bisping for the middleweight belt. He would be successful, becoming one of just six fighters in UFC history to win titles in multiple weight classes.
Although he couldn’t get the fight he wanted with Khabib Nurmagomedov (27-0 MMA, 11-0 UFC) on his way out the door, St-Pierre said he was proud of his career and retired with his head held high.
St-Pierre left the door open for a potential comeback if the exact right circumstances came together, but now that he’s informed USADA of his retirement, he would be required to go through a six-month testing window before he could compete.
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