Former UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St-Pierre has revealed an eye injury is why his UFC return has been delayed.
On Friday, at the C2 Montréal conference, St-Pierre discussed his injury and his UFC return.
“Trust me, I’m not the kind of guy who thinks, ‘Hey, I’m going to make everybody wait for me. I don’t want to fight during the summer, I want to take my time,'” St-Pierre said.
“That’s not the reason. If it were up to me, I would come back. The reason is I had a problem with my eye. I had an injury.
“My vision has not been back yet. It will be back. It’s something very minor. The doctor insisted for me that I don’t spar until September.”
St-Pierre continued by talking about the UFC knowing of his injury but still trying to get him to fight in the summer.
“UFC knew. Everyone knew. The people concerned knew that that was the case, but they still tried to put pressure on me to fight in July,” St-Pierre said. “That’s the reason why I’m coming out public today about the reason why I’m not fighting this summer.”
St-Pierre then went on to discuss why he wants to fight UFC Middleweight Champion Michael Bisping, and that he doesn’t want to fight just anybody in his UFC return.
“I always said that if I was coming back to fight, it needed to be a fight that excites me,” St-Pierre said. “I wanted to fight Michael Bisping because I wanted to fight someone that could elevate me. Michael Bisping is the champion now and I think that he could elevate me as much as I could elevate him. I’m taking a huge risk coming back. I’m putting my legacy on the line.”
St-Pierre has not fought since 2013. He temporarily left the UFC after successfully defending his welterweight title for the ninth consecutive time.
