Report: UFC’s Georges St-Pierre to announce retirement after failed negotiations with Khabib Nurmagomedov

By Tim Burke @TB_Money

According to reports, Georges St-Pierre is set to officially hang up his gloves tomorrow. The former welterweight and middleweight UFC champion had apparently been angling for a 155-pound bout with lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov, but that did not come to fruition. Ben Beaudoin of French-language station RDS, sister station of TSN in Canada, was the first to announce the news, which was translated by TSN’s Aaron Bronsteter on Twitter:

Aaron Bronsteter@aaronbronsteter

BREAKING: @BenBeaudoinRDS reports that Georges St-Pierre plans on announcing his retirement at a press conference tomorrow morning at the Bell Centre in Montreal.

This comes as a result of failed negotiations for a bout between him and lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov.Benoit Beaudoin@BenBeaudoinRDS*****CONFÉRENCE DE @GeorgesStPierre DEMAIN À 10h30 AU CENTRE BELL.

Selon les informations recueillies par @RDS, Georges annoncera sa retraite.

Des négociations pour un combat avec Khabib Nurmagomedov auraient avorté.

Plus de détails ici : https://www.spreaker.com/user/rdsca/la-retraite-pour-gsp-20-fevrier-2019 …325 10:09 PM – Feb 20, 2019 Twitter Ads info and privacy 193 people are talking about this

St-Pierre (26-2, 20-2 UFC) dominated the 170-pound division for a long period of time between 2006 and 2013, before relinquishing the belt and stepping away from the sport after a close win over Johny Hendricks. He returned at middleweight in 2017, defeating Michael Bisping for the 185-pound UFC belt. The weight gain took a toll on him though, and he was forced to give up that bout after suffering through a bout of ulcerative colitis.

Much had been said about another return for GSP, who declared himself to be “fully recovered” in December. He said that he only wanted legacy fights since he had nothing else to prove, and named Khabib and Conor McGregor among the people he might be interested in meeting since him and his coach Firas Zababi believed that he could make lightweight. UFC president Dana White wasn’t interested in that though, saying that GSP wasn’t getting a shot at another belt just so he could give it up once again. He also said that if GSP really did want Khabib, he needed to fight a lightweight contender first.

According to the reports, the retirement press conference will take place at 10:30am EST tomorrow at the Bell Centre in Montreal.