Georges St-Pierre believes fighters are taking things too personally outside of the cage.
Jorge Masvidal is accused of attacking Colby Covington in front of a Miami restaurant. According to the incident report, Covington told police that Masvidal ambushed him outside of Papi Steak Restaurant, punching him twice in the face while saying “You shouldn’t have been talking about my kids.”
Masvidal was taken into custody on suspicion of criminal mischief and aggravated battery. He pleaded not guilty to these charges. This is a very ugly incident that Georges St-Pierre, UFC Hall of Famer, says was caused by fighters becoming too involved in the drama.
“Things can get out of control,” St-Pierre stated on The MMA Hour . I think that guys take things too personally. It didn’t matter what the opponent said to me. For me, it’s not personal, it’s about business, and the more he was trash-talking me, the more, in a way, I was making money. So I really have to give a big thank you to all the ferocious opponents I had who were trash-talking me, because they built up the fight in a better, interesting way for the audience, so I made more money. It’s good for business.”
St-Pierre faced his share of opponents looking to talk trash about him during his UFC tenure, including Nick Diaz, Dan Hardy, Josh Koscheck, and Michael Bisping. The two-division champion was not subject to the same trash talk that Masvidal faced, in which Covington made a series of sexist remarks about Masvidal’s family. St-Pierre says that this was deliberate.
“I don’t want my private and family life to be public,” St. Pierre said. “It’s because I know if someone wants to get to me, it’s easy for me. It’s not personal. It’ll be different if I try to reach someone I love, or someone from my family. This is why I tried to conceal this aspect of my life. Because I am a public person, so this part, it’s public, it’s for the fans, but my private life, for me it’s even more precious to me. To compare with my career, my life is a million times better than what I’ve done in my career, but I keep it secret because it’s my private life. It’s my diamond. It is my treasure.
“Most guys don’t think like that. A lot of them, sometimes they want to use their families to build up a better platform, to showcase their — that’s okay too. It’s just for me, I knew coming from a martial arts background, it’s not a game that we play, and if you want to get to someone to make him lose his chill, there’s a way to get to someone and that’s to attack someone that he loves. Sometimes that’s a better way than to attack the person himself, and I knew that, and I didn’t want to give the chance to my opponents to use that against me. The Art of War, my friend! The Art of War!”
Few, if any, have been more successful in the Art of MMA Warfare than St-Pierre. The UFC Hall of Famer ended his career with a 26-2 record, having avenged both losses and having captured both the UFC welterweight and middleweight titles.
