Georges St-Pierre Says Weight Cut Is “Killing the Athletes” in the Sport of MMA

Former two-division champion Georges St-Pierre spoke out to ESPN’s Marc Raimondi and touched on several trending topics in the MMA world. Fight fans are always keen to hear from ‘GSP’ and the soft-spoken former champion broke down his views patiently. Chiefly, he touched upon a possible fight with current 155-pound king Khabib Nurmagomedov and the culture of weight cutting in MMA.

The consensus GOAT had an interesting take on the matter and was clear that extreme weight cutting was an issue. The conversation surrounding the same came to the forefront when Israel Adesanya went off on the mic after UFC 253. The Nigerian born champion slammed weight cutting and a larger narrative was generated around the same.

Georges St-Pierre lays down the law

St-Pierre drew parallels on the matter of weight cutting based on his own storied tenure fighting at 170-pounds. Not to mention, he recognized the fact that cutting weight excessively tends to hurt the fighter in the long run.

He said, “I’ve never been a big welterweight, I could go down but it would be hard. I’m not a big fan of cutting weight either. I had a recent interview and I talk about it with Chael Sonnen and I saw a recent interview with Adesanya and I think it’s a big problem in the sport.”

What’s more ‘Rush’ St-Pierre did a detailed deep dive into the adverse effects that were a long-running, systemic problem. The former champion from Canada urged fighters to reconsider the thought of cutting excessive amounts of weight. He believes that come to Fight Night, it would hinder a fighter’s performance.

“Fighters should fight at their weight, you know what I mean. Fighters cutting too much water weight. I think there should be multiple weigh-ins and then one on the day of the fight. Maybe the day before, then the week before, and the month before, to avoid those crazy weight cuts that is killing the athletes of the sport today. They might not kill themselves spontaneously but the residual effect, the damage that these thing does to them they will feel it later on into their life.”

The conversation surrounding weight cutting is one that won’t be expanded on in a short period of time. However, it is undeniable that its adverse effects have been worn on the bodies of the fighters when they step into the cage. Not to mention, those fighters who correctly assess their natural weight class have traditionally reaped the rewards.