Georges St-Pierre is one of the most successful MMA fighters in the history of the sport, and he’s got plenty of different opponents lining up to compete against him in his return to professional grappling. St-Pierre is a UFC legend but what many MMA fans might not know about him, is that he’s also had some experience in no gi grappling competition too. He actually competed in the 77kg division at ADCC 2005, where he went 1-1 at the event and fell just short of a position on the podium. Almost two decades after that competition, St-Pierre has revealed that he will be taking a grappling match at UFC Fight Pass Invitational 6 on December 14th, 2023.
Although there’s no opponent booked for Georges St-Pierre to face in his return professional grappling yet, a few names have already started to emerge. Immediately after the announcement, three names emerged: Kamaru Usman, Khabib Nurmagomedov, and Anderson Silva. St-Pierre had this to say about those opponents:
“They are all very attractive, but everybody has a different agenda. Some are training for upcoming title fights. Some are maybe too heavy, some are too light, some just retired and want nothing to do with competition.”
While it may not be any of those three men, St-Pierre that they’re already hard at work finding the perfect person for him to face at the event:
“I received a list from the UFC today and we’re going to check and look who’s available and we’re going to make a decision with the UFC and with my people to make sure we go up against someone they think that the people want to see me compete against.”
One particular name stood out the most, as he’s previously been open to taking on Nurmagomedov in a grappling match before. But according to him, it’s simply not meant to be:
“Khabib (Nurmagomedov) was not on the list.”
While it might be difficult finding the perfect opponent to meet Georges St-Pierre in his return to professional grappling, he makes the point that he may actually have more options available to him as opposed to if he ever returned to MMA:
“I know for a fact that (submission grappling) is a sport that is more accessible. It’s accessible to a wider range of people than mixed martial arts due to the risk of injuries (in MMA). I love martial arts and I’m in a position now, I’m 42 years old, I’m not the same man that I was when I was competing. When I was competing in mixed martial arts, I wanted to be the strongest man in the world. That was my priority. Now it’s no longer my priority. But I still like to train for a competition and I think it’s perfectly fitted for me.”
Regardless of who the opponent is that Georges St-Pierre faces at UFC Fight Pass Invitational 6, fans all over the world will be eager to see him return to professional grappling one more time. He’s one of the most popular fighters on the planet and he’s been training alongside Gordon Ryan and under John Danaher for so long now that it’ll be interesting to see what he can pull off on the mats.
