ATLANTA – For recovering UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre, there's no tougher part of recovery than the needed patience.
After rushing his recovery from a previous knee injury, St-Pierre suffered another and was shut down in December for an ACL injury.
He's making progress and even addressed a potential move to middleweight due to UFC 145 co-headliner Rory MacDonald, but the champ has learned to follow his doctor's instructions.
"It feels very good," St-Pierre today said of his knee. "In two months, I'm back to training. I'm in good shape now, but I'm not in fighting shape.
"In two months it'll be 100 percent. Now I feel something is not 100 percent. But in two months, it'll be out of mind. I don't want to mess it up. If I try to jump or go to fast, I'll have to do it all over again. I don't want to [make] the same mistake."
While St-Pierre's knee is clearly better, he knows he needs a graft to really strengthen and supply stability before he can amp up his workouts. Right now, they're limited to work in the pool, running in a straight line, and "gymnastics stuff and things like that."
He likes the variety, but admittedly, he sure wants to punch someone in the face.
He may get that opportunity on Nov. 17, when UFC 154 is slated to take place at Montreal's Bell Centre. The French-Canadian's upcoming title-unification bout with interim champ Carlos Condit (28-5 MMA, 5-1 UFC) would be a perfect fit, but St-Pierre (22-2 MMA, 16-2 UFC) said he has no idea when it'll actually take place.
"When you get hurt for a long time and you're forced to get pulled away from training and you're forced to stop doing what you like to do everyday, it makes you see things in perspective," he said. "I just want to get back, and wherever the fight will be, I will be glad to fight. I'm very anxious to come back."
In addition to a string of fan and media commitments, St-Pierre is in Atlanta for this weekend's UFC 145 event, where friend and training partner Rory MacDonald meets Che Mills in the pay-per-view co-headliner. MacDonald, of course, is only 22 years old but already one of the sport's most promising prospects.
In fact, some folks – including St-Pierre himself – believe MacDonald will be a future titleholder.
So how would that work since he and St-Pierre are both in the welterweight division?
"I'm not interested in fighting him," St-Pierre said. "There are a lot of welterweights. I don't think we need to do it now. In two years, who knows? I may go to middleweight. Who knows what's going to happen?"
St-Pierre and Condit both train with Greg Jackson, and they're going to fight later this year. So what makes MacDonald different?
According to St-Pierre, he and Condit haven't ever really been training partners. MacDonald, meanwhile, is both a training partner and friend. And for a guy who has a hard time disliking people, fighting a friend just isn't a possibility worth a discussing.
"I have a hard time fighting guys I like already," he said. "When I fought Jake Shields, I had a hard time fighting him. So fighting a friend? I can't do it. Right now, there are so many guys right now, it's not an issue.
"But I know one day [MacDonald] is going to be world champion."
