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St-Pierre laughs, at peace with the world and what he did over the course of a storied career that saw him beat a Who’s Who of the welterweight division, dominate the weight class, and then take a four-year hiatus before coming back to beat Michael Bisping for the middleweight crown. It was the perfect cap to a run unlike any other, and while his fellow fighters celebrated him for what he did in the Octagon, they also paid attention to how he carried himself outside of it. GSP was an ambassador of the sport of the highest order, a true gentleman, and he left the game on top, which is a rarity in any sport.
“I wanted to be an example,” said the 39-year-old. “It’s sad to see, but a lot of guys, they act bad outside of the cage, and that has an effect, not only on you, but on the sport, and the image of the entire staff of the UFC. I think you have a responsibility when you’re a champion to carry that on your shoulders. I’m not a perfect person at all, but I tried to carry myself with a certain code to make sure I don’t affect the image of myself and of the sport. When I first came into the sport and started training and competing, the image of it was not as it is now. It was bad and so we had to work very hard to carry ourselves as true, respectable athletes. And I felt that was my responsibility to carry that on my shoulders to try to elevate the sport, and I’m glad that the guys recognized me for that reason, as well.”
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It’s for all these reasons, both in and out of the Octagon, that St-Pierre was a clear pick for the UFC Hall of Fame, and as the dust has settled on his time as an active fighter, the never-ending debate has kicked up again, with fans and pundits arguing about who the greatest mixed martial artist of all-time is.
It’s impossible to have that debate without St-Pierre in the conversation, and as the years go by, his case gets stronger and stronger.
Take away his impact on the MMA scene in Canada, the way he helped build the sport in the post-TUF era, and how he became a crossover star. Do that, and if you look at his body of work, the names alone speak for themselves: Hughes, Parisian, Miller, Trigg, Sherk, Penn, Koscheck, Serra, Fitch, Alves, Hardy, Shields, Condit, Diaz, Hendricks, Bisping.