UFC welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre wants to recover the right way following an injury that scrapped his planned title defense against Carlos Condit.
St-Pierre on Wednesday told Sportsnet.ca that he actually suffered two injuries – not one as originally reported – and doesn't anticipate returning before the end of January or early February.
"The recovery, I want to do it well," he said. "I don't want to do it too fast."
The initial injury occurred Saturday while St-Pierre was training to fight Condit in the headliner of UFC 137, which takes place Oct. 29 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center. The champ said he suffered a "moderate ligament strain" that may have damaged the medial collateral ligament (MCL) in his knee. He believed he could still fight if he trained lightly, but on Tuesday, he injured his hamstring compensating for the original injury.
St-Pierre trainer Firas Zahabi on Tuesday told MMAjunkie.com (
www.mmajunkie.com) that the fighter sprawled on a sparring partner's takedown attempt and appeared afterward to be injured.
"After he cooled down, I knew he couldn't fight anymore," Zahabi said. "I've been around, I've seen injuries, and I know that that kind of injury is going to take at least two to five weeks of not standing on it for it to be really good (and) sturdy to fight. That's just me estimating with what I've seen in the past."
In the wake of St-Pierre's withdrawal, Condit elected to wait for his title shot, and co-headliner Nick Diaz vs. B.J. Penn was moved to main-event status. Ironically, Diaz was originally scheduled as the headliner opposite St-Pierre before he was reassigned to fight Penn in the wake of his no-show of two press conferences in support of UFC 137.
"I wanted to fight Nick Diaz before this whole thing happened," St-Pierre said. "It's Nick Diaz who did not show up to both press conferences on the press tour. I talked to (UFC executive) Lorenzo Fertitta ... and he said to me, 'We cannot take the chance that you fight Nick Diaz and maybe he doesn't show up the day of the fight.' That's what he said to me and it makes perfect sense. I don't want to train the whole time and he doesn't show up."
St-Pierre said he's eyeing rehab and a vacation after the demands of his most recent camp. He admitted the withdrawal was somewhat of a relief.
"I'm not going to lie – I cried yesterday," St-Pierre said. "I had a ton of pressure falling off my shoulders, because for the last few days I was in the mindset that I was nervous for the fight. I was excited for the fight but I was also nervous to know if I was going to be able to fight.
"Now all the pressure is off, I feel much better. I'm going to do some rehab, maybe take a vacation because I went through a lot. It's not only the fight, it's all the training camp, I went through a lot of stuff. I need to reset the whole thing again and I'll be ready for the next one."
While the event has yet to be made official, the UFC has for the past several years put on a major event during Super Bowl weekend, which would appear to fit St-Pierre's timetable.
