Georges St-Pierre Recalls Floyd Mayweather Ducking Him - 'No Kicks, No Takedowns, I'm Not Stupid'

Georges St-Pierre, the former two-weight UFC champion, revealed he was close to fighting Floyd Mayweather.

GSP is arguably one of the best UFC fighters of all time. His last UFC fight was a win over Michael Bisping at UFC 217 in 2017.

The Canadian retired with a 26-2-0 record.

While he was linked with a return to face Khabib Nurmagomedov and a possible UFC 300 fight with Nick Diaz, neither of those bouts happened. GSP then announced his retirement in 2019.

Mayweather is no stranger to facing UFC stars, having boxed Conor McGregor in 2017.

The fight earned Mayweather over $300 million as he stopped the Irishman in the tenth round.

Mayweather has since been linked with the McGregor rematch, while there was also talk he could have boxed Khabib.

GSP became the latest target. But when it came to the rules, GSP had to decline.

He claimed it was simply a boxing fight with four-once gloves, only allowing backfists, preventing it from being a real mixed-rules bout.

GSP Reacts

“There was a promoter that wanted to organize [a fight between us].

The way they described it, it was a fair compromise between boxing and MMA. It was against Floyd Mayweather and I was retired.

I was like ‘This one, I’m interested’, and they flew in.

I was in Austin, Texas. He flew in on a private plane, we had a dinner.

“I asked ‘What’s the deal?’ and he said it was a boxing fight in an octagonal ring. It was like, ‘Okay, but what’s the rules? What’s the compromise?’, Oh it’s an octagonal ring and you’re allowed to do spinning backfists. Well, it’s not really a fair compromise.

Allow me to throw me kicks?

No, he’ll never accept that. I said, ‘Okay, no kicks above the belt?’

No, that’s never going to work.

“Allow me to throw him down? ‘Oh, he never wants to go to the floor!’ I’m like, I’m not saying going to the floor.

I’m saying throw him down, take him down, and we stand back up.

He’s like ‘No, no’… [At that point] forget it. It’s a trap, I’m not that stupid… It didn’t work,” GSP said

Mayweather’s Career

Mayweather has had numerous exhibitions in recent memory, facing Youtubers and influencers.

He faced off against Logan Paul and even KSI’s brother Deji. That has created a mixed perception of the fighter since he retired from professional boxing.

Fans have argued that Mayweather is damaging his legacy by chasing fights against non-pro boxers.

Meanwhile, the fighter has publicly said he is open to picking up large amounts of money for what he calls ‘sparring.’

While he has been successful in that regard, GSP was a name who got away.

Based on how GSP recalled the negotiations, it was never really in the running. At 42 years old, GSP’s fighting days are behind him.