Georges St-Pierre explains why he doesn’t want to fight Tyron Woodley “right now”

Reigning UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley considers himself the greatest welterweight in the history of MMA. While Woodley has developed an incredible resume, however, many fans and pundits still feel former welterweight and middleweight champion Georges St-Pierre has claim to that title.

In a recent interview with FanSided, Georges St-Pierre discussed Tyron Woodley’s claim to GOAT status.

“Fighting is a very complex thing,” Georges St-Pierre said. “I actually think it is good for him to think he is the greatest welterweight of all time because it makes him confident and confidence has a big role for a fighter, but there are other fighters out there who can claim the same thing.

“The greatest is hard to say, there is also another guy named Matt Hughes who at one point was one of the greatest,” St-Pierre added. “There are some fighters, I’m not saying Tyron Woodley is one of these guys – he is an incredible fighter – but there are guys in this sport sometimes they become champion and they have an easier time than others in terms of opponent, in terms of challenges. Tyron had to go through great fighters like Stephen Thompson and his last performance was outstanding against Darren Till. There was a lot of hype on Darren Till because he was undefeated. Tyron just shut him down incredibly good. Tyron is in a good way in terms of legacy and in terms of being the greatest.”

One easy way for Tyron Woodley to establish himself as the true welterweight GOAT of MMA would be to beat Georges St-Pierre. Unfortunately for him, this is not a fight St-Pierre is interested in right now.

After defeating Michael Bisping in a comeback fight last year, Georges St-Pierre now says he’s going to be very selective with the fights he accepts going forward, as he’s recently been struggling with colitis.

“For me, [the fight with Bisping] was a bad experience, I won my fight, everything was great, the result was ok, however, I compromised what is the most important thing for me which is my health, ”Georges St-Pierre said. “I never want to compromise my health ever again. However, now I feel a lot better, I feel great. I’ve done some intermittent fasting with some medication and with some anti-inflammatory to help with the symptoms of my ulcerative colitis.”

“In terms of coming back to fighting, you have to realize I have a lot more to lose than to win,” he continued, explaining why he’s not interested in fighting Woodley right now. Tyron Woodley wants to fight me because he has a lot more to win than to lose because if he beats me in terms of legacy, in terms of popularity, he has a lot more to win. It’s not that I’m scared, actually, I’m always scared when I go fight, I’m scared of everybody but being scared is irrelevant because I’m going to walk the walk if I have to do it. I have to choose carefully what is my next move. For at this point I am with cementing my legacy it is not a straight line. I have to check what can I gain, what can I lose. That is why when I fought Michael Bisping it was a win/win situation from both sides. If I were to lose I lose but if I win, I win big so it was good. Fighting Tyron Woodley right now, now that he won his last fight it elevates his stock a little bit more but it’s still not a complete win/win situation for me.”

Do you think we’ll ever see Tyron Woodley and Georges St-Pierre fight?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 9/24/2018.