Georges St-Pierre wasn't having fun in MMA prior to injury, aims to be more exciting in UFC return

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St-Pierre has long been considered one of the best fighters in the world, but he's also been criticized in his last several performances for a risk-averse strategy that has led to some less-than-thrilling fights. Being forced to the sidelines for over a year already due to multiple injuries and ultimately knee surgery, St-Pierre has had time to reflect on a lot of things, and the 31-year-old Champion realizes that he's had some issues in those fights.

"Towards the end, I didn't have the drive anymore," St-Pierre said in an interview with MMAFighting.com. "I was doing it because I had to do it. I didn't have fun anymore. I lost a little bit of the love for the sport."

"There is a saying in English that you don't repair something that is not broken," he said. "Sometimes I believe you have to break it yourself to repair it, to make it better. Because the sport of mixed martial arts will evolve. If I stay at the same level, they will catch up to me. I need to evolve, to stay ahead of game. The critics are always there. I listen to the critics. I'm very critical on myself. I want to make more finishes myself. I want to be more exciting, take more risks, be more opportunistic. I've been working on that a lot."

As he prepares to make his return to action this November against Carlos Condit, there has been a lot of conversation surrounding a potential super fight with Anderson Silva. While St-Pierre is open to the fight, he's also realistic about the fact that there are other things that could impact the ability for the UFC to put that bout together.

"It could happen of course," St-Pierre said of the fight. "It definitely can happen, but for me, that's far ahead in time. Right now, I’m not thinking about that. I can't. My main thing right now is to get better, and then when I'm going to fight, to get ready to win the fight, what I need to do to win and beat the guy. I need to focus on one thing at a time."

"You never know what's going to happen in the future. A lot of things can change. There are a lot of big fights coming up. Chris Weidman, I've seen him in training. He's at a different level. He can be world champion if he fights Anderson first. So, this fight is not written in blood. If all goes well and all the stars are aligned, yeah, maybe one day it will happen. But right now, I just came back and I need to fight Carlos Condit. We'll see what's going to happen next."

Penick's Analysis: St-Pierre has been very analytical towards his MMA career, and is one of the more cerebral fighters in the sport. That has led him to avoid unnecessary risks, a change that's been evident since he was knocked out in shocking fashion by Matt Serra in 2007, and it's something that made him content with simply grinding out opponents whom he's had a very big advantage over. Whether that same type of style remains prevalent for him is something that's up to him. If he's serious about changing things up a bit, we may see something very special from him as he returns this fall, and if that leads to a bout with Anderson Silva next year it's all for the better.

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/UFC_2/article_14131.shtml

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