Georges St-Pierre calls Conor McGregor ‘an anomaly,’ addresses UFC star problem
Georges St-Pierre is one of the most successful champions and one of the biggest draws in UFC history, so he understands the importance of star power.
The UFC is currently more successful than its ever been, with a constant presence in the sports world due to near-weekly programming, record-breaking gates any time the promotion goes on the road, and a new blockbuster broadcasting deal on the horizon. To suggest the UFC is in any kind of danger from a financial standpoint would be ridiculous.But that hasn’t stopped growing fan sentiment that the product is lacking and that there are a lack of compelling names at the top of the marquee these days.
Appearing on the IMPAULSIVE podcast, “GSP” was asked about the UFC’s star problem and he agreed there’s work to be done to build future main event attractions.“Conor McGregor, I believe, is an anomaly,” St-Pierre said. “Love me, hate me, but don’t ignore me. He did something that was unbelievable. It’s hard to try to recreate that, it will happen at one point, for sure.
Records are made to be broken. But right now, because nobody can do what Conor has done, I don’t think it’s because they don’t have any stars. They have stars. They had Sean O’Malley, but now Sean O’Malley lost. They had Israel Adesanya, he lost a few times, it’s unfortunate for UFC because he was a big name. [Alex] Pereira, same thing, just lost.”St-Pierre listed four of the UFC’s biggest stars, with McGregor leading the charge.
The former two-division champion has headline some of the most lucrative combat sports events of all time, but has recently faded into irrelevance with no in-competition appearances since 2021 and numerous legal issues tarnishing his reputation.
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Sean O’Malley, Israel Adesanya, and Alex Pereira are all former world champions that broke through into the mainstream, but title fight losses have raised the question of how much longer the UFC can rely on them to bring in eyeballs.To St-Pierre, those losses are just the consequence of the high-wire act that has always been a part of MMA.
Anyone can lose on any given night—St-Pierre knows this well, having once been on the receiving end of an unbelievable upset knockout courtesy of Matt Serra—and while that is what makes MMA so appealing, it can also lead to top names rapidly descending down the ranks.
However, St-Pierre does not want to see that change and hopes the UFC can get back to making the biggest fights happen after failing to deliver on highly anticipated matchups like Jon Jones vs. Tom Aspinall and Islam Makhachev vs. Ilia Topuria.“As a businessman, I think the goal of UFC is to make money,”
St-Pierre said. “No. 1, it’s not good for them because if one of their superstars lose, it’s not good. But on the other side, I don’t think they necessarily try to give—I mean, they might do it sometimes, to give a good dancing partner to certain guys so it promotes them, but when you’re champion, you take the No. 1 contender. That’s how it should be.
That’s the difference between boxing and MMA, we always criticize boxing because, ‘Oh, there’s guys that have 60-0, 40-0, 30-0,’ but they don’t really have a strong challenge.“The reason why people love mixed martial arts is because when you’re champion, you’re fighting the No. 1 contender and it’s not up to you to choose and this should not change. That’s how it was in my time, that’s how it should be now. The champion has nothing to say. You fight who is in front and that’s how it should be. The UFC should take action.”
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