Former Welterweight And Middleweight Champion Georges St-Pierre Continue To Be Outspoken Against Performance-Enhancing Drugs
Georges St-Pierre has been a longtime proponent of anti-doping. St-Pierre vs. Johny Hendricks is, by all accounts, one of the most memorable fights of 2013. A few months out from UFC 167’s event, most of the debate has spun around GSP and Hendricks’ disastrous attempt to win the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association (VADA) for extensive out-of-competition drug testing. Both Georges St-Pierre and Johny Hendricks suffer some public relations black eyes before their showdown. ‘Rush’ mentioned he wouldn’t return to Octagon unless the UFC fixes drug testing problems.
In 2015, the UFC and USADA shake-hands to become partners to implement a testing policy. Despite this, St-Pierre believes there are still cheaters in the sport. He went on to outlines that the system is still inadequate.
USADA still doing his job, sidelines former champions like Jon ‘Bones’ Jones, Anderson Silva, Fabricio Werdum and more.
Georges St-Pierre among those fighters who considered the greatest fighter of all time and recently spoke to the MMAFighting on the subject and unwilling to mention Jon Jones but said that PED users with past and present shouldn’t include in GOAT list.
“It makes such a difference, People have no idea how much of a difference, and I know it because I’ve trained with people who are using peak performance-enhancing drugs. I’ve trained with a lot of them, that I know for sure. I’ve trained with them, and you could see a huge difference. Like, when you grapple with them, it’s not even the same guy. It’s like if you’re taking two different human beings. It’s completely insane.
“Just look at the difference with some of the — I’m not saying any names, because I don’t want to attack an individual, I want to change the system — just look at the difference with some people. Look, I remember there was a fight between two opponents, and one guy said, ‘Oh, it’s not the performance-enhancing [drugs] that threw the kick. It’s me.’ Actually, it’s not true. That’s the performance-enhancing drugs that threw the kick, because you wouldn’t have thrown the kick [like that] if you would have not taken them. You know what I mean? So to give you an example, it makes you more creative, it makes you more hungry. It changes the physique.
“Also, not only the physique, it changes the mind of the person. So with people, they think it’s only affecting strength and conditioning and stuff like that. No, it doesn’t. It’s not only recuperation — it changes the person entirely. It makes him a better athlete. And yes, I think they should be removed from the [GOAT discussion].
“It’s very hard to say that,” St-Pierre added, “because a lot of people, they work hard. We know if they got caught once or twice, but we don’t know if they’re all taking it for all of their life or not, so it’s a hard topic to say. It’s not black or white. It’s grey.”
As far Jon Jones specifically, his case was the first one where he took advantage of UFC’s ‘substantial assistance.’ — an article 10.6.1.1 in UFC’s anti-doping policy. In that matter, St-Pierre returned to shades of grey talk as well supported USADA’s eagerness to trade suspension time in exchange for snitch statement. St-Pierre also added it’s hard to know that those fighters who caught using PEDs once or twice were lifelong users.
Do you agree with Georges St-Pierre?
