LOS ANGELES – News of Georges St-Pierre’s official retirement didn’t come as much of a surprise to Tyron Woodley and Ben Askren.
For the UFC welterweight champ and newcomer, who both fight at UFC 235, St-Pierre already was winding down.
“I think Georges has done what he needed to do in the sport,” Woodley (19-3-1 MMA, 9-2-1 UFC) told reporters during a media lunch in support of his co-headliner against Kamaru Usman (14-1 MMA, 9-0 UFC) on Saturday at T-Mobile Arena. “He didn’t have to prove it.
“Of course, I want him to fight me. But that’s for me. That’s for my legacy. He didn’t need to fight Tyron Woodley.”
St-Pierre once worked behind the scenes with the current welterweight champ to make a fight. For a brief moment, the two were penciled in for a showdown. But UFC President Dana White canceled it after a lackluster title defense from Woodley.
As St-Pierre (26-2 MMA, 20-2 UFC) revealed after his retirement announcement, the UFC sealed his decision to hang it up when the promotion nixed a potential fight with lightweight champ Khabib Nurmagomedov (27-0 MMA, 11-0 UFC).
Askren (18-0 MMA, 0-0 UFC), who himself came out of retirement for a fight with Robbie Lawler (28-12 MMA, 13-6 UFC), agrees with Woodley that St-Pierre was on his way out. But he also pointed out the ex-champ’s admission that the right offer could make him reconsider.
“I don’t feel like he set a hard line in the sand,” Askren said. “I felt like he set the door open if something interests him in the future.”
The way Woodley sees things, if there’s enough of a financial incentive, St-Pierre will be interested. Whether it’s wise for him to keep coming out of retirement, that’s another story.
“It’s not the same era,” Woodley said. “He doesn’t have to come back and prove that. He wants to come back and tap into that pay-per-view model that he helped build. And I can’t knock him for that.”
If St-Pierre suddenly decides to change his mind and head back to welterweight, Askren would be more than happy to greet him.
“I always tell him, ‘Hey, GSP, Tyron hits pretty hard, but I don’t hit that hard,’ he said. “‘So if you want to fight me instead of him, it’s perfectly fine.'”
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