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Yahoo
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Mailbag: The 3 best ways to go about retiring from UFC (and actually staying that way)
How do you go about a UFC retirement in the right way (after so many examples of the various wrong ways)? What ever happened to the UFC's promise of AI rankings? And does Brock Lesnar's return to the WWE mean he might also show back up in the UFC at some point? All that and more in this week's mailbag. To ask a question of your own, hit up @benfowlkesMMA on X or @ on Threads. @justlikelasagna: Since there's been a few glaring failures recently, let's try something different. What does a successful ufc retirement look like for a fighter? I've given this topic a lot of thought and it seems to me there are three good ways to go about it. First is what we'll call the Khabib Nurmagomedov model. You have an incredible career, make a lot of money, then walk away at the peak of your powers, leaving us all stunned and skeptical. Except you don't totally turn your back on the sport. You become really active as a coach and mentor, letting your stable of fighters carry your legacy forward while also filling the void within through a vicarious joy in their success. This is trickier than it sounds, not only because step one is becoming one of the best to ever do it, but also because you're basically trying to get sober while still working as a bartender. Simply being in the gym that much is enough to push many people back into the ruthless arms of MMA competition. Next there's the Georges St-Pierre model. Again, it requires becoming one of the all-time greats and making so much money that you never really have to work again. But then you retire just as your prime is beginning to slip away and return only when your coldly analytical mind tells you that there's a very good opportunity to do something big, and for one night only. The important part here is that, once you've returned and achieved that thing, you immediately disappear again. Sure, it'll make the promoter mad, but screw him. He doesn't care about you and never has. Lastly, there's the Cole Konrad model. For those who don't know the name, he was the inaugural Bellator heavyweight champ and he held the title from 2010-12, before retiring from the sport undefeated and then getting a regular old job. Never lost a fight. Never competed again. Lives a nice, quiet life in Minnesota, working for a dairy company when last I heard (in this amazing article by our Uncrowned editor, Shaheen Al-Shatti). The good news about this one is that you don't even have to be an undefeated champ to make it work. Several fighters I know have done this, including my bro Danny Downes (shouts out to Danny Boy) and Brian Stann (shouts out to the greatest living American). The key to this strategy is turning your back on MMA entirely. Don't coach. Don't spar. Don't train fighters. Ideally you shouldn't even watch this sport anymore. As far as you are concerned, that was a whole other life and it might as well have been lived by a different person. Years from now when you're getting a haircut and the barber asks about your cauliflower ear, mumble something about high-school wrestling and leave it at that. Be free. @shadore66: Is summer the best season? It is right Summer is trash. Sorry to be the one to tell you. It's too hot (and only getting hotter, in case you haven't noticed). The afternoons are a sweaty mess. If you want to do anything fun or strenuous outside, you basically only have a couple hours in the morning and a couple hours at night to choose from. If you have kids it's even worse, because they're just … there. All the time. Bored and constantly asking what's for lunch. (My official position on this, now that my kids are 12 and 10, is that their lunch is none of my business.) Now fall? There's a season. A crackling crispness to the air. The sun is still present in our lives but without a sense of murderous malice to it. You can go for a leisurely hike in the afternoon while a hearty stew takes shape in the slow cooker. There's football on TV. Both kinds! It's the absolute best. Of course, ask me in late February and I'll tell you I long for the slow, sun-scorched days of summer. But right now it's August and my upstairs office is effectively unusable due to heat, so I'm angry and bitter. @SLefkaditis: Ιs UFC's AI ranking system dead? How close would it be to Tapology's? (which seems... great?) It's been a while since we've heard UFC CEO Dana White go off on the UFC's own rankings. The last thing I remember hearing on it was that he'd contacted Mark Zuckerberg, who had agreed to put some of Meta's best people to work on solving the UFC's rankings problem. Since then … nothing. It's important to note that Tapology's new ranking system is not AI. It's an algorithm they created and tweaked and crafted to automatically rank every UFC fighter based on pre-selected data points. That's different than just asking AI to tell you who the top 15 featherweights are, which is something AI could absolutely do, even if it would mostly just be guessing based on who knows what. The thing about an AI rankings system, whether it's the UFC partnering with Meta to create it or some other AI company, is how would it really be any different than the UFC matchmakers and executives just coming up with their own list? Maybe they want the veneer of AI so they can continue blaming someone else whenever people get mad about the rankings, but isn't that part of what rankings are for? We're always going to argue over them. It's never going to be perfect and unassailable with unanimous agreement all across the board. Plus, it's not like the UFC has ever been handcuffed by the rankings. The little numbers next to a fighter's name are mainly useful as a talking point on broadcasts or as a marketing tool on fight posters. It never stops the UFC from making whatever fight it wants, so who cares? Whether it's AI or an algorithm or a man behind the curtain, we're still going to argue and it's still not going to matter that much. @Jietzsche: Do you have any latest inside info on the UFC's new tv rights negotiations.. which platform does it seem most likely to be? No inside info, but I was intrigued by today's news that the WWE has struck a deal with ESPN. All those PLEs will move from Peacock to the worldwide leader, though some other WWE content will stick around. It really forces me to decide if it's still worth keeping my Peacock subscription even though now the main thing left for me there is old '30 Rock' episodes. (But my god, they're still so funny every time.) This means TKO has now done big deals with both Netflix and ESPN, two of the frontrunners for the UFC's new broadcast rights deal. It also means that WWE fans will need no fewer than three different subscriptions to follow all the action. And that, my friends, is likely a preview of what UFC fandom will look like by this time next year. @NeedXtoseePosts: Do we think it's possible now Brock is now back under the TKO umbrella and WWE are willing to use him - Lesnar vs Jones in an "exhibition fight" at the White House to save the trouble of drug testing. Brock Lesnar is almost 50 years old, dog. He didn't really love this sport even in his prime, and he never really got comfortable with being hit in the face. Plus, remember all that stuff I said about how maybe it wouldn't be the best look for the UFC or MMA to headline a White House event with a guy who can be easily seen and heard freaking out on various police videos? Let's just say that pitting him against a dude who's named a whole bunch of times in a federal sex trafficking lawsuit doesn't help. @Beastin364: Saw your tweet about Martin Buday getting cut off a win. Be honest though do you really want to see him fight again? Me personally I don't think anybody will miss him in ufc I see your point and I don't totally disagree with you. Buday went 7-1 in the UFC, with a three-fight winning streak to close out his contract (he was not cut, by the way, just not signed to a new deal), but he also wasn't anyone I really looked forward to watching. The same could be said about many (most?) current UFC heavyweights. The fact that he was good enough to beat other fighters the UFC might have had more interest in promoting probably only hurt his chances to stick around. He wouldn't lose but also wouldn't let us have much fun. My point was, doesn't this highlight the degree to which MMA is not like other sports? A tennis player who wins almost all his matches doesn't get pushed off the tour just because he's boring to watch. Buday is, by pretty much any objective measure, a good heavyweight fighter. Nobody goes 7-1 in the UFC if they suck. So when the UFC decides, nah, got no use for the guy here, not at any price? And when the public's response is, sure, that's fine by us? I'm just saying, it tells you that this is only a legit sport between when the cage door closes and opens. Outside of that, it has more in common with performing arts or pro wrestling. We should at least be honest with ourselves about that. @steviefenn: Would the ufc be better served having fewer cards but with more high profile and well known fighters? The build up to fights would be better and the product would be less diluted. Thanks. I hear this a lot and I think the key phrase is 'better served.' It depends what we think that means. Because I can tell you that, for the UFC and its parent company, it is better served by whatever makes the most money right now in the present moment. And between site fees paid by various city or state governments and broadcast rights fees paid by TV partners like ESPN, the UFC makes money simply by putting on fights. Any fights. Regardless of quality or fan interest or name recognition on the card. It's a volume business right now. No one at the UFC is even thinking about doing less if it would mean making less. One could argue that it's not great for the long-term health of the business or the sport to keep churning out APEX cards that fans aren't into. And yes, I agree that the overall product could be better if there were fewer events and a higher standard for each one. But that's fan experience we're talking about, and it's not where the UFC's focus is. Not at all.
CTV News
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CTV News
Former UFC champion Georges St-Pierre looks to share his story on stage
Mixed martial arts champion Georges St-Pierre strikes a pose after unveiling a bronze statue of himself in a fighting stance during the inauguration of Place GSP in his hometown of Saint-Isidore, Que. on Wednesday, June 9, 2021. (Paul Chiasson/The Canadian Press) TORONTO — Former UFC champion Georges St-Pierre wants to share his story. From being bullied as a child to holding down three jobs while going to college. And the stress and challenges he faced in his rise to being a two-division mixed martial arts champion. The 44-year-old St-Pierre, a native of Saint-Isidore, Que., who is a member of both the Canada Sports Hall of Fame and UFC Hall of Fame, will debut 'GSP: The Instinct of a Champion' at Toronto's Meridian Hall on Sept. 29 with other Canadian dates to follow in 2026. The hope is to then take the show to the U.S. and other countries. St-Pierre is no stranger to speaking publicly, having made plenty of speeches to corporate and other gatherings. The speaking tour will take the form of a live interview, followed by an audience Q-and-A. 'I will explain how I deal with fear, with stress. Background stories. Different protocol and tricks that I used throughout my career,' St-Pierre said from Thailand where he currently filming a reality show to air next year on Netflix. He believes the September show will work for both fans and those who hope to learn something that they can apply to their own lives. 'A lot of what I do is always oriented towards the art of war — in terms of performance, how to be the best. And to be able to reach the top,' he explained. St-Pierre officially retired in February 2019 with a 26-2-0 record, having won the middleweight title in his last fight at UFC 217 in November 2017. He previously was the longtime welterweight champion. Sharing his story was difficult at first, he acknowledges. 'Now time has passed and I can talk about a lot of things in my life that I was not so comfortable to talk about when I was younger,' he said. 'Things like my dad when he was drinking and how it would affect me. Because when he quit drinking, he became my No. 1 inspiration. I saw how hard it was (for him). 'So everything started negative in the beginning but then later it became a positive thing, because it became an inspiration for me. When he made that sacrifice (forgoing alcohol), it really reunited my family and it bound us back together. It's something that had a huge impact on my life … I feel very lucky and very privileged to have a great role model.' St-Pierre comes from humble beginnings on Montreal's South Shore. His father spent more than 60 hours a week on a floor-recovering business, installing carpet and ceramics. His mother nursed the elderly. St-Pierre earned his own floor-recovering certificate before making it big in MMA. Tony Gattillo, the Montreal-based producer of the show, believes St-Pierre's story can serve as inspiration. 'I think people will leave the show very motivated and will want to apply certain things that Georges is going to share … for the first time. And motivate the people,' said Gattillo, a former singer now working behind the scenes in the entertainment industry. 'And help them realize that if you want to be a champion in your life or you want to reach a certain goal, there is hard work to do. There's dedication. There's discipline. And mental toughness.' When St-Pierre entered the modern wing of the UFC Hall of Fame in 2020, he was one of seven UFC fighters to win a title in two weight classes. He retired on a 13-fight win streak with a record that included 13 title fight victories, the second most in UFC history, and boasted the most strikes landed (2,591), most significant ground strikes landed (461) and most takedowns (90). This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 10, 2025 By Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press
CBC
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
From the octagon to the stage: Former UFC champion Georges St-Pierre ready to share his story
Former UFC champion Georges St-Pierre wants to share his story. From being bullied as a child to holding down three jobs while going to college. And the stress and challenges he faced in his rise to being a two-division mixed martial arts champion. The 44-year-old St-Pierre, a native of Saint-Isidore, Que., who is a member of both the Canada Sports Hall of Fame and UFC Hall of Fame, will debut "GSP: The Instinct of a Champion" at Toronto's Meridian Hall on Sept. 29 with other Canadian dates to follow in 2026. The hope is to then take the show to the U.S. and other countries. St-Pierre is no stranger to speaking publicly, having made plenty of speeches to corporate and other gatherings. The speaking tour will take the form of a live interview, followed by an audience Q-and-A. "I will explain how I deal with fear, with stress. Background stories. Different protocol and tricks that I used throughout my career," St-Pierre said from Thailand where he currently filming a reality show to air next year on Netflix. WATCH | Georges St-Pierre calls Order of Canada his 'greatest honour': Georges St-Pierre calls Order of Canada his 'greatest honour' 7 days ago Duration 2:04 The former UFC star's recent appointment was in recognition of his anti-bullying and sports promotion work among young people. He believes the September show will work for both fans and those who hope to learn something that they can apply to their own lives. "A lot of what I do is always oriented towards the art of war — in terms of performance, how to be the best. And to be able to reach the top," he explained. St-Pierre officially retired in February 2019 with a 26-2-0 record, having won the middleweight title in his last fight at UFC 217 in November 2017. He previously was the longtime welterweight champion. Sharing his story was difficult at first, he acknowledges. "Now time has passed and I can talk about a lot of things in my life that I was not so comfortable to talk about when I was younger," he said. "Things like my dad when he was drinking and how it would affect me. Because when he quit drinking, he became my No. 1 inspiration. I saw how hard it was [for him]. "So everything started negative in the beginning but then later it became a positive thing, because it became an inspiration for me. When he made that sacrifice [forgoing alcohol], it really reunited my family and it bound us back together. It's something that had a huge impact on my life … I feel very lucky and very privileged to have a great role model." St-Pierre comes from humble beginnings on Montreal's South Shore. His father spent more than 60 hours a week on a floor-recovering business, installing carpet and ceramics. His mother nursed the elderly. St-Pierre earned his own floor-recovering certificate before making it big in MMA. Tony Gattillo, the Montreal-based producer of the show, believes St-Pierre's story can serve as inspiration. "I think people will leave the show very motivated and will want to apply certain things that Georges is going to share … for the first time. And motivate the people," said Gattillo, a former singer now working behind the scenes in the entertainment industry. "And help them realize that if you want to be a champion in your life or you want to reach a certain goal, there is hard work to do. There's dedication. There's discipline. And mental toughness." When St-Pierre entered the modern wing of the UFC Hall of Fame in 2020, he was one of seven UFC fighters to win a title in two weight classes. He retired on a 13-fight win streak with a record that included 13 title fight victories, the second most in UFC history, and boasted the most strikes landed (2,591), most significant ground strikes landed (461) and most takedowns (90).
CTV News
30-06-2025
- Sport
- CTV News
Georges St-Pierre appointed to the Order of Canada
Fighter Georges St-Pierre flexes during the weight-in for UFC 158 in Montreal on March 15, 2013. (Ryan Remiorz / THE CANADIAN PRESS) Quebec MMA legend Georges St-Pierre has been appointed to the Order of Canada. A total of 83 Canadians were appointed to the Order, announced Monday by Governor General Mary Simon. READ MORE: Political, health leaders among more than 80 new appointees to the Order of Canada From Saint-Isidore, St-Pierre is a former world champion mixed martial artist who defended his welterweight title a record nine times, later winning the middleweight title. He also founded the Georges St-Pierre Foundation, which helps youth, counters bullying and promotes physical activity. St-Pierre is not the only Quebecer to be appointed to the Order. The list includes:
Yahoo
28-06-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Tom Aspinall and Demetrious Johnson agree — Jon Jones can never be the MMA GOAT
Jon Jones' status as the greatest of all time has fallen into question arguably more than ever before following his unceremonious retirement. Jon Jones left a lasting legacy on the MMA world as one of its all-time greats, but some of his contemporaries still have questions regarding his placement atop the mountain. After officially retiring this past weekend, Jones is generally considered neck-and-neck with a fellow former two-division UFC champion Georges St-Pierre in MMA's greatest of all time conversation. However Jones' many career asterisks, between his numerous failed drug tests and continuous criminal charges, are too much for some to overlook. Retired flyweight legend Demetrious Johnson is also in the GOAT conversation, and admittedly has gone to bat for Jones in the past. Speaking on a special Friday edition of "The Ariel Helwani Show" in Las Vegas, Johnson revealed what has led him to change his tune. Advertisement "I've never failed a drug test," Johnson said. "Khabib [Nurmagomedov] has never failed a drug test. 'GSP' has never failed a drug test. Why haven't we failed drug tests? You look at the long reigns we've done, we've never been stripped [of the title]. And you look at somebody who has been stripped ... Americans and people who watch this sport have a very short-term memory. They truly f***ing do. But if you go back and peel back the onion, and you look at the whole entire career, I'm not saying Jon Jones didn't do great things — he was an amazing athlete, right? But when you start talking about the greatest of all time, you look at Muhammad Ali. I don't think he's ever failed a drug test. If you look at Floyd Mayweather, he's never failed a drug test. [Oleksander] Usyk, he's never failed a drug test. Usain Bolt. "You look at across the board, name one athlete that's considered the greatest of all time in a sport that's failed a drug test." Jones' retirement didn't come without controversy, as it ended the lengthy saga of his ill-fated heavyweight unification bout against Tom Aspinall. The latter became the longest interim champion in UFC history while waiting for Jones, only to ultimately be promoted to undisputed status in the middle of a UFC Baku post-fight press conference upon Jones' retirement. Advertisement Aspinall, too, shares a similar line of thinking to Johnson regarding the GOAT debate. "'GSP' is my greatest of all time," Aspinall said Friday on "The Ariel Helwani Show." "It goes without saying. He has done everything. Two-division champion, also [avenged] both of his losses, zero PED stuff. And this is my view on PEDs, personally — if you're a sprinter, for example, you do 100 meters, and you take PEDs and you win a race, you become faster than people who are not taking PEDs from that. That's OK. You're a cheat; you've won. They'll take your title off you or whatever, that's fine. If your job is to hurt another person physically, which could potentially redirect the rest of their life post-fighting, you're an absolute piece of s***, and you should never be able to fight again if you have any PED stuff. "It's like taking a gun to a knife fight. It's like taking a knife to a bare-knuckle fight. How can you look yourself in the mirror when you know that you're cheating and you could potentially damage the other person for life? It's disgusting, and anybody who's caught doing any kind of PEDs — and I know there's some tainted supplements out there — but if you do it repeatedly ... you're a pretty sick individual, in my opinion. It shouldn't be allowed." No one was affected more directly by Jones' recent portion of his career than Aspinall, who has been healthy but sidelined for nearly a full year. Aspinall's interim title reign began in November 2023 as a result of a Jones pectoral muscle tear that canceled his controversial title defense against Stipe Miocic. Needing a filler, UFC threw together a late interim bout between Aspinall and Sergei Pavlovich, which the Brit won by knockout in a mere 69 seconds. Advertisement Jones' perpetual lack of interest in fighting Aspinall didn't give the new undisputed champ much optimism until a meeting with UFC earlier this year. Then he caught word of Jones' recent antics in Thailand, which finally convinced Aspinall that the matchup was never meant to be. "For me, the second that I won the interim title, I think that a lot of people looked at me a little different to a regular interim champion, in my opinion," Aspinall said. "Just because of the politics around it and the way that things happened. But for me, I was always a champion, anyway. Interim or not. But I would have liked to have taken it from the other champion in a fight. That would have been nice. But I guess it worked out pretty good, anyway, I guess. "From here, I just want to be done with [Jones]. I just want to move on, but I did want to fight him for it. I think that would have been the right thing to do." Advertisement Aspinall said he plans to meet with the UFC to discuss his future sometime before he departs Las Vegas in the coming days, but as of now, he's unsure when he'll fight again. Ideally, the sooner the better, said the undisputed heavyweight king. As for the opponent, he's open to anyone. "Cirly Gane is there, we can do [Alexander] Volkov too, but that's a bit weird because he's coming off the loss, which I actually did think he won, to be fair," Aspinall said. "[Jailton] Almeida's good. I like it. "I was chasing that [Gane] fight when he was above me ... any of 'em. All of 'em. I'm here to fight people, so anybody's good. If somebody wants to fight me, I love that. ... I'd like to beat [everyone] in the top 10."
