Georges St. Pierre announced his retirement Thursday from the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) marking a sad day for Saskatoon-born former UFC fighter Mitch Clarke - but by no means did it come as a surprise.
“I think a lot of people were expecting it, but it’s not really fun to watch someone who … crossed a big span in this sport,” Clarke said from his Edmonton home. “To watch him retire it kind of sucks for people who liked him.”
Clarke competed in the lightweight division before retiring in 2017 following a loss at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alta.
Following St. Pierre’s retirement press conference, Clarke recalls meeting the French-Canadian fighter in Saskatoon at the Kinsmen Celebrity Sports Dinner. Clarke recalls St. Pierre’s friendly and approachable demeanor.
“I don’t really get starstruck too often (but) that was one of the times where I got a little startstruck and you don’t know what to say,” Clarke said. “He’s polite, he’s nice, he tries to joke around and a little socially awkward but overall a really nice person.”
St. Pierre has been an incredible inspiration to mixed martial arts and he’s also a model professional fighter who never sunk to the trash-talking level of his opponents, Clarke said.
“The most he ever trash-talked is when he said he wasn’t impressed with someone’s performance,” Clark said. “He was a big star without having to trash talk, you look at the sport now, just to get a little piece of the limelight you need to trash talk and disrespect your opponent and he did it all with class.”
At 37 years old, St. Pierre is retiring with a 26-2 record, tied with the most wins in UFC history and holding the record for most title defenses in the welterweight division with nine. St. Pierre’s last fight came in November 2017 when he submitted middleweight champion Michael Bisping to become just the third UFC fighter to hold championships is two different weight classes.
“He was one of those pioneers in putting everything together in terms of being able to strike, he was able to wrestle and grapple really well,” Clarke said.
CTV News originally report St. Pierre knocked out Micheal Bisping.
