Q&A: Georges St-Pierre on UFC's return to Montreal, state of Canadian MMA

The last time the UFC hosted an event in Montreal, Georges St-Pierre was on his MMA hiatus - and still two years from capturing the middleweight championship in what would be his final Octagon appearance.

A decade later, St-Pierre will be taking in the action at the Bell Centre as a happily retired legend of the sport.

The UFC returns to Quebec's largest city on May 10 with a welterweight title fight between champion Belal Muhammad and Jack Della Maddalena taking top billing. St-Pierre, a UFC Hall of Famer and former two-division titleholder, will be cornering bantamweight Aiemann Zahabi in a main-card bout against Jose Aldo.

theScore sat down with St-Pierre to discuss the event, the state of Canadian MMA, what else he's up to these days, and much more.

(Editor's note: Interview lightly edited for length and clarity. Watch it in video form here.)

theScore: Why do you think it's been this long since the UFC has held an event in Montreal?

St-Pierre: Normally, they use local guys to headline the card. They have a few guys fighting: (Marc-Andre) Barriault is fighting, Aiemann (Zahabi) is fighting Jose Aldo. Jose Aldo is one of the best to ever do it. (Zahabi) is a friend of mine. I'm gonna be in his corner. For me, it's fun to go back in there and - I don't compete anymore, but I can get that feeling back a little bit as a trainer, as a cornerman.

theScore: And you've cornered some fighters in the UFC before, right?

St-Pierre: Yeah, yeah I did. So it's not my first rodeo.

theScore: What's more nerve-racking? Being in the cage or being in someone's corner?

St-Pierre: Being in the cage is scarier because you can die out there. It's crazy. But I'm still very nervous when I'm in the corner for someone because I care about the person. But you have to be completely objective and emotionless. That's what a good cornerman is.

theScore: Zahabi's fight against Aldo, another UFC Hall of Famer, is a big one. What's on the line?

St-Pierre: He's gonna crack the top 10 and become a serious contender if he wins. It's now or never.

theScore: In the UFC 315 main event, welterweight champ Belal Muhammad will defend his title for the first time against Jack Della Maddalena. What do you make of Muhammad's reign so far? Are you a fan of his?

St-Pierre: Yeah, I like to watch him fight. He's a very well-rounded fighter. He's good everywhere. He's got a very unorthodox style, especially standing up and striking, which throws people off. He switches stances, he's got relentless pressure. He's got a style that is very, very hard to deal with for a lot of fighters.

theScore: Do you think he beats Della Maddalena?

St-Pierre: It's hard to say. But I think he's got all the tools to do so. Jack is on a winning streak, and momentum sometimes wins fights. However, I think Belal Muhammad has more experience in big fights and is more well-rounded.

theScore: Ahead of UFC 315, Bud Light released a gold beer can and apparently infused the gold from one of your championship belts into the paint of the cans. Is this true?

St-Pierre: Yeah, they took some of my gold. The last time I fought in Montreal, it was against Nick Diaz. I raised the belt, and we wanted to give a chance to the fans who supported me for so many years to raise gold as well. It's a way to give back to the fans.

theScore: So they actually used one of your belts?

St-Pierre: Yeah, they melted some gold in the product. It's a good promotion, and it's limited edition.

theScore: Did they use the belt from the Nick Diaz fight or a different one?

St-Pierre: Yeah, I think it was the Nick Diaz one.

theScore: You were the face of Canadian MMA for many years. What are your thoughts on the state of Canadian MMA right now? Is it in a good place, both in the UFC and on the regional scene?

St-Pierre: It goes by waves. When I was competing at one point in my career, I was very lucky - I had the chance to have incredible training partners. I had David Loiseau, Patrick Cote, Rory MacDonald, Denis Kang. I had an incredible group of very high-level training partners, and most of us were training in different gyms. Once a week, we were meeting each other to exchange and train. It was very competitive, but it was not a malicious competition. It was an inside competition. I think that helped us to be very competitive at the international level.

I feel like today, everybody is training at their own gym. It's a little bit more selfish. And they don't have any alliance. In Canada, if we want to be competitive at the international level, I think we need to exchange more. We need more variety of training partners at a high level. Because if we don't do that, we don't have the numbers of the United States, Brazil, or Russia, or some other countries in Europe as well. We're too small. We need to train with each other.

I think that's maybe one of the reasons why it's missing. And it goes by waves. One era was the American wrestler, the other era was the Brazilian jiu-jitsu in Brazil, now it was the Dagestani, and at one point it was the guys from Australia and New Zealand. Now I feel like it's going toward the Georgians. They're very good. Merab (Dvalishvili), Ilia Topuria. And there are a few other Georgians. And I don't know why. When one breaks to the top, it sort of inspires the others. Maybe we'll have another kick at it soon, hopefully.

theScore: Maybe there'll never be another GSP, but you believe Canada will get to a point where it's producing champions and top contenders again?

St-Pierre: Absolutely. There are many ways to get to the top. Records are made to be broken, my friend.

I don't like when people try to compare themselves to me. We're all different. I never tried to compare myself to someone at the time who was higher than me. I tried to compare myself to what I was yesterday and get better every day by a little bit. By doing that, and in the long run, you look back and you're like, "Wow, what an improvement." That's how you should do it. People try to make big leaps. Life doesn't work like that, especially in sports and martial arts. It's a small leap every day, and that's what matters the most.

theScore: You have lots going on in your life. Your own clothing brand, supplements, and even a line of vodka. Are you busier now than when you were fighting?

St-Pierre: Yeah, I'm busier now. When I was fighting, everything was centered toward being the strongest man in the world. But now I'm more of an entrepreneur. I have different businesses, always related to health and fitness, most of it. I have a fitness equipment company, I've got food supplements, vodka, online betting. I've got instructional videos, seminars, conferences. I even have movies in the pipeline that are coming up. So I'm very busy now.

theScore: You're covering all the bases.

St-Pierre: And on top of it, I have a lot of time for my personal stuff that I like to do. My passions - something I didn't have much time for back then.

theScore: And you're still training almost every day, right?

St-Pierre: Yeah. It's very important for me. It's very therapeutic. I'm not training to be the best, but even though I still improve, I train just because it's therapeutic. And when I want to get a kick at it in terms of competition, I go in the gym and go at it with some of the young guys who are getting ready for fights, and it's enough for me. I don't need to prove it to anyone anymore. I'm 43 years old.

theScore: Still at Tristar?

St-Pierre: Yeah, I'm training at different places. TriStar, Montreal Wrestling Club, I go to H2O sometimes. I go to Houston, Texas, and New York sometimes. I go to many different places. Freddie Roach in Los Angeles. I travel a lot.

theScore: Do you still see Rory MacDonald from time to time? Do you guys keep in touch?

St-Pierre: Yeah, I saw him a few weeks ago in the gym. He looks very good. He looks like he's in good shape and very happy.

theScore: Is there anything else you still want to cross off the bucket list?

St-Pierre: I'm working with a friend of mine, a training partner of mine, Erik Owings, and we're working on making, for me, one of the best tutorials for fitness. It will be more for people who are not really fit than for experts. It's gonna be interesting. It's more appealing for the average person. Most people are not athletes. They work every day. We want to give them a blueprint of all the things they can do in the most efficient ways.

theScore: You said you have some movies in the works. Will acting become an even bigger focus at some point?

St-Pierre: Yeah, it's a passion. It's fun. And when I like the project, I'm on board.