UFC 196 was an incredible night of fights headlined by Nate Diaz choking out Conor McGregor in a non-title welterweight fight. While the upsets of Holly Holm and McGregor got the most headlines the day after the fights, somebody that was watching from the crowd drew quite a bit of buzz himself.
That someone is former welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre who was in Las Vegas to watch the UFC 196 card. There have been rumblings recently that St-Pierre was considering a comeback to the UFC, but there hasn't been much confirmation from either side whether discussions were ongoing, at least until now.
St-Pierre said that his return to the UFC will depend on "a lot of things," but he did clarify that he was talking with the league about a potential comeback. UFC president Dana White and St-Pierre's manager Rodolphe Beaulieu have confirmed that talks have been happening, but there is no indication of any progress.
Beaulieu says that the UFC has yet to offer him a fight but that it is an "ongoing discussion". White, while hopeful St-Pierre will come back, is unsure just how willing he is to get back into the octagon. All parties involved insisted that St-Pierre's presence at UFC 196 was not an indication that his comeback will happen; instead White just said "Georges wanted to come to the fights tonight."
St-Pierre last fought in the UFC back at UFC 167 on November 2013 when he defeated Johny Hendricks via split decision to retain his welterweight belt. GSP defended the belt 10 times and will go down as a legend in the sport of MMA, but he is still just 34 years old and may have the itch to fight again. There had been some talk of a potential super fight at UFC 200 between him and McGregor at the welterweight division, but McGregor's loss may have spoiled that idea.
One of the major reasons St-Pierre walked away from the UFC was because of the state of the drug testing system at the time. Since he hung the gloves up, though, the UFC has partnered with the United States Anti-Doping Agency and they randomly test UFC fighters year-round. St-Pierre has said that this system is much better than the one that was in place when he was fighting while his manager said the system is good, so that shouldn't be a hold up anymore.
St-Pierre has a career record of 25-2 and went out as the best pound-for-pound fighter in the UFC. It is unclear if he will decide to return to the octagon, but if he decides to it will give the UFC a huge jolt. The UFC is already growing tremendously, but getting GSP back would only help things even more. White wants to make UFC 200 one of the greatest cards ever, and if he can somehow get St-Pierre to be part of it, it will be well on its way.
