UFC releases a statement and claims Georges St-Pierre is still under contract

Big news hit the MMA community on Monday.

During Monday’s episode of The MMA Hour, former UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre made a shocking announcement. The former king of the UFC welterweight division announced that with the help of his legal team, he was now a free agent and no longer under a contract with the UFC.

It looks like things are not as simple as St-Pierre may have thought.

Late Monday, MMA Fighting released a statement from the UFC claiming that Georges St-Pierre is still in fact under contract with the company.

“Georges St-Pierre remains under an existing agreement with Zuffa, LLC as his MMA promoter,” the statement said. “Zuffa intends to honor its agreement with St-Pierre and reserves its rights under the law to have St-Pierre do the same.”

St-Pierre said on The MMA Hour on Monday that he hired the highly reputable lawyer, James Quinn to deal with all of the contract issues and said that they ultimately were not able to come to an agreement with the UFC. Quinn gave the UFC a deadline to offer a fight to St-Pierre, which had passed and St-Pierre was told by his lawyer that his contract was terminated and that he was a free agent.

“The reason I wanted to go back and fight is because I feel right now that I’m at my best,” St-Pierre said (transcribed by Marc Raimondi of MMA Fighting). “I’m truly confident I can beat the guys that are champions right now. I’m that confident. At least I’m a free man. Now, I know I’m free. I have other options. I’m not caught up legally with a contract. I’m a free man.”

Apparently the UFC sees things differently and this will likely end up being figured out in court.