UFC reportedly reopens negotiations with Georges St-Pierre after MMAAA announcement

Earlier this month, former UFC welterweight kingpin Georges St-Pierre was part of a group of high-profile fighters which announced the formation of the MMA Athletes Association. While the move was certainly a major one for the UFC community, which resulted in countless fighters reaching out to members of the MMAAA with intentions of joining themselves, many believed that the fighters were making a mistake by ‘biting the hand that feeds’.

With that being said, St-Pierre recently informed fans in an interview with TSN, that the UFC reached out to reopen negotiations following the MMAAA’s announcement:

“No, it doesn’t mean I’m done with the UFC,” St-Pierre told TSN (transcribed by MMA Fighting). “Like other members, like Cain Velasquez, Tim Kennedy, Cowboy Cerrone, they’re all seasoned fighters. Doesn’t mean I’m done.

“Actually, the night that we launched the association we received a letter, Rodolphe [Beaulieu] received a letter – my agent – from the UFC lawyer saying that they want to renew the negotiation with me because at the point where I was before the negotiation, the communication was cut. So we didn’t have any kind of communication.

“I was hoping earlier to get on the card for Toronto but it’s not happening and now I guess they’ll keep talking and we’ll see if they can come to an agreement. Same story as before but now I have more options. I’m [a] free agent. I don’t have to be in the UFC. I could go somewhere else.”

St-Pierre, who has been absent from the Octagon since his 2013 split decision win over Johny Hendricks, where he defended his welterweight championship for the ninth time, was looking to return to the Octagon to fight UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping at UFC 206 in Toronto on December 10th, however failed negotiations with the UFC resulted in St-Pierre’s return being postponed once again.

“Unfortunately the conditions that they were offering me for the contract were unacceptable. Any smart person would not have accepted it. A person who would have accepted is a person who is scared and has no choice, but I’m healthy, I’m wealthy, I have the choice. I don’t have to take something that is not advantageous for me — I mean equitable. Because now I was taking all the risk and it was not equitable.

“Who or what kind of person would I be if I’m taking a fight under conditions that are not equitable, satisfied, and I’m fighting for the other person that is trying to make their condition of work better. So if I do something, it’s smart to do it for myself first and then I try to do it for the other person. That’s my mentality.”