What's up, George?

Hey, I'm doing well and you?

I'm good, brother. I'm good. Thanks for taking the time out today, man. Really, really appreciate it, buddy. So won't keep you too long. Where are you? Are you at home?

I'm home, yeah. I'm actually moving in a new home on next week, so I'm excited.

Nice. Exciting time. So still in Montreal? Staying there?

I'm in a suburb outside of Montreal and more on the countryside, on the south shore of Montreal. I'm a country guy. I'm not much of a city guy.

Well, you got to get out there. That's what I want to do. I live just south of LA, but I want to get out there and have some land. My wife wants to have chickens and stuff like that. Good for you, man. Good for you. Well, anyway, we're not here to talk about where you're going to be living. We're not here to talk about my wife's need for chickens. George St. Peter, the greatest welterweight of all time, Rush, the former 185 pound champion that choked me out unconscious, son of a gun. Hey, you have a big announcement to make. You are returning to the competitive world of martial arts, correct?

Yeah. Not in the mix martial arts though. Not for the UFC as a contender for trying to get back the title in mixed martial arts, I'm going back into grappling in the submission wrestling, jiu jitsu circuit.

Yeah, amazing. And that's going to be the UFC Fight Pass invitation, all right?

That's right. They changed the date today. It will be December 9. And I got some name now that came out. And apparently, most of the fans, the UFC, they really want... They would like me to grapple against nick Diaz. That's the name that comes back the more often.

Oh, nick Diaz, that's amazing. Because I saw a lot of names online. I don't know where I saw this, but I'm sure I saw this yesterday. There was a rumor that it was going to be Habib. Was there any truth to that?

No, I think it was just the fans that were excited about it because that fight never happened. But no, I think it's Retire or Khabib. The number one choice for UFC was nick Diaz because the UFC fight pass invitation. They know that I'm no longer competing to try to be the best. Grappling, it's a very specialized sport. You know what we do, Michael? It's mixed martial arts. It's more complete. There's less rules. Grappling is a more specialized sport. It doesn't mean if you're a great mixed martial arts fighter that you will be a good grappler and vice versa. It's something that it's new for me. I I've completed before in the ADCC a long time ago, but this is truly something different. It's a different form of competition, different form of combat sports. I will need the time to adapt.

Yeah, absolutely. Ow did this come about? Obviously, anyone that follows you on social media, you're always in shape, you're always training, you treat your body like an athlete still. So did you miss that competitive feeling?

I missed the adrenaline of competition, but I would not go back and mix martial arts. The risk are too big. I have no illusion. I'm 42 years old. I probably passed my physical prime. However, I still like the adrenaline of competition. I think the best way to do it is in grappling. The risk are to a minimum in a way that if something happened, you just stopped and there's no brain damage because there's no strike. I'm a very competitive person. I'm taking this very seriously, but it's a fun competition. It's more fun. It's not as stressful as it was when I was fighting. When I was fighting, I wanted to be the strongest man in the world. That was my thing, my number one priority. Now I have other more important priority. This is more for fun, for the kick of it and for the fans. When the UFC told me they wanted to get into grappling, I wanted to help the platform. Ufc Fight Pass, invitation all to grow. I wanted to be part of it. I'm more there to serve the audience as a guy who will fight a novelty fight than a guy who will take that seriously and try to compete to get to a world title.

I have no illusion. You know what I mean? I'm 42 years old. I'm doing this to make something excited for the audience, for the fans.

So, nick Diaz, I think everyone's going to love that. Who doesn't want to see that, right? Everyone wants to see that. And I think for nick as well, because he's not a young guy these days either. I think it makes all the sense in the world. Is that happening? Have you had word from nick Diaz's side?

I don't know. My agent talked to the UFC today. This is real fresh news. He told me that nick was interesting, apparently. But nick is still under contract with the UFC. So we still have another fight, apparently, in his contract. They would like him to participate into the grappling event to make it big. It's going to be host in a bigger place than usual. I'm going to be competing. There will be other big name in the grappling world like Gordon Ryan, probably John Carlo and some other guys. So it's never been a better time to be a Jutsu fans.

Yeah, absolutely. So it's not going to be at the Apex. They're going to do it somewhere bigger.

I think that's what it was discussed with my agent. Now I'm giving you some news that gets fresh. You're the first to get it. The date has changed. It has changed to December 9. It's a Saturday and it will be host in a bigger venue. So there will be an audience to watch the show. And that's what I wanted in the beginning because I don't only want it to be a thing that you can buy on a platform. I think it's important to have an audience and create some an atmosphere. You fight in front of a crowd is different than when you grab all one on one in a gym.

Absolutely. I saw you there at the APEX last week and you were talking with some of the guys and you were doing a little bit of promo for the event. And as we were talking, one of the promoters or organizers was there and you guys are trying to get me to do it.

Yeah. I think, Michael, you should do it. You're still in good shape. Why don't you come train with us in Austin, Texas? We should train together and maybe you'll be on the card with me competing December 9. Maybe you could take on Anderson Silver. I would love to see it. And I think it would be a formidable opponent for you. I think it will be a great match up that the fans will be pleased to watch.

Brother, hold on. So you're saying that you will... Because it would be my honour, it would be my absolute pleasure of a lifetime. So you're saying that if I accept a grappling match, I can come and train with you guys.

100 %. I will be happy to train with you. The guys will be happy. And I'm sure you will love the gym. My training partners, they're all very nice. We train hard but we're not malicious. It's fun. It's like a brotherhood. And I think it's the best place in the world for you to get ready if you go up against maybe... I'm just saying. I'm just throwing out the name like Anderson Selvour or someone like this.

100 %. If we do December, I'm super busy with UFC stuff and a bunch of other stuff I've got going on. But December might work because I know initially you were going to do September or something like that. I didn't have time for that. But December, I could make... I think I could fit that into my diary.

Michael, that would be perfect. It's right before Christmas and all these holidays time where we can have a good time. So it's right before it. So why don't you come compete with me? And on the same card and we train together. And after we celebrate the holidays and we're on vacation.

I was going to say I've got one condition. I will say yes right now. I will commit one condition that afterwards is, we go out and we do what we did in Manchester.

We can't talk about what happened in Manchester. What happened in Manchester stayed in Manchester.

But we went out there, we had some drinks.

But we got to do it in Vegas for sure.

I'm in 100 %. I look forward to it. So I'll reach out to the UFC and see what happens. Well, I've got you, George. I got a few things for you. I went on Twitter and I asked people if they got any questions for you. So I'll ask you those in a second. But what are you doing with yourself these days outside of their gap and then coming back, obviously, very much.

Looking forward to that. Well, outside of their training. I'm very busy. I'm more of an entrepreneur. I'm very lucky, Michael. I'm doing very well. I don't need to compete in terms of money. I don't need to ever work again. I just work because I like to keep myself busy, to challenge myself with different things. I have a food supplement company, Warrior, that I sell beef organs. It's doing very well. It's called Warrior. I have own fitness company called Baseblock Pro. It's fitness equipment that we start. It explode during COVID because people were locked up. So the product sells very well. I have a vodka that just came out, Proxacute, I have a betting online company, Bet 99. I'm pretty busy. I have movies, I have a bunch of stuff going on. So I'm a busy man.

Life is good for George St. Pierre. Well done. Congrats on all that, by the way. What would you say? Because George, you've always been a professional, right? You've always looked after yourself. You've always conducted yourself like a true professional. There's a lot of fighters out there. And as you know, and I know, the life of a fighter, it's hard. You know what I'm saying? And sadly, and this is just the way the world is. And it's like in any profession, really, only a small fraction of people make it. You know what I'm saying? Only the cream of the crop gets to make a living as a professional fighter. But then after you retire and you walk away, that can be a hard time. For me, I was always very worried about that. I was always concerned. I was trying to start businesses and things like that and get into the entertainment world, acting and all these kinds of things. But if someone was to ask you for advice, that was a fighter that was maybe thinking about retirement, what some advice that you could give to them?

Well, there's a few fighters actually that reach out to me. I can't say their name because it wouldn't be nice, but there's a few very known fighter that reach out to me, talk to me about this. It's a question that came back to me very often. I'm no different. In the beginning, I felt my life was a little bit empty. I was glad to retire because I had too much stress. I was glad when I retired, but after a few weeks, I was like, Man, what am I going to do? I prefer my retirement, but I felt like something was missing. What I say to the fighters that retire, I think they need to find themselves another challenge. They need to be hungry for something else. Because if you're satisfied in life... We're all fighters, we're all crazy competitors. If you're satisfied and you sit down, you're going to get bored, and that's when I think personally your health will suffer and everything because your brain doesn't work. You need to stimulate your brain, stay in shape, keep training because you carry your name. You're Michael Bates paint. Michael Bates paint is fit, he's strong, he's tall, he's big, he's not fat, he's not out of shape.

You know what I mean? I think it's important you carry your brain for the rest of your life. Once physically you do that, you need to find yourself something that you will enjoy. It could be fitness equipment, it could be acting. I've seen you in many movies and you were doing great. I really love the way you were playing in all these different movies. I think you're very talented. There's different options for different people. You have to find yourself a set of skills that... First, what you would like to do, not what people want you to do, but what do you want to do? It's like when you go back as a kid, first you want to find out truly what you want to do, what makes you happy. Once you know that, there's a lot of people that will be very negative and say, Oh, you can't do this, you can't do that. Same thing when you wanted to be an MMA or a champion in MMA. Those people, it's either you tell them to F out or you use that as a motivation to push yourself to get to your goal even more.

And then you have to work hard, work, work, work, work hard. When you climb to become champion, and when you get champion, if you get to your goal after your career, you want to, I think, to always invest on yourself. You know what I mean? If you want to be, I don't know, a fitness trainer or you need to invest on yourself, get some knowledge, follow some courses, some classes that will give you more knowledge. Because if you don't do that, the competition will get to you. You know what I mean? If you're a champion in a MMA, if you don't improve, the competition will get to you. Same thing. Once you reach that top is I think another thing that is important is to give back. Not to be nice. It's a little bit selfish to say it, but I give back only to the people that I care, to the cause that I care. So it motivates me to do more, to give me more motivation to do to do better in what I do because I can give to these people. I don't give to everybody. I give to only the people I care and to the cause that I care.

I think it's like a restart of a career but in a different branch.

Absolutely. You mentioned the acting thing there, and obviously that's a hard business, right? And I never thought I'd talk about it.

It's terrible. I'm sure it's hard to get there. It demands a lot of work. I love people and I know because I've done some a little bit. Some people believe they are born a good actor. It takes a lot of practice and a lot of work. You know what I mean? Like a fighter, you're World Champion. It takes you a lot of sacrifice to get her. If you want to be Denzel Washington or Leonardo Dukes, get for you, man. It takes a lot of work. You just don't wake up one day and I'm that good now. It doesn't happen like this.

But to your point, a moment ago, I was going to say because I'm still pursuing the acting work because I enjoy it and all the rest of it. But my wife, but as you know, it takes a lot of time away, right? You go away for a long time. Last year, I was in Bulgaria for 10 weeks and I've got children just like you have. And my wife was like, Why do you do that? You don't need to do that. But it was to your point, I'm like, Babe, I need to do something. I need to test myself. I've got to have that competitive urge taken care of. You know what I mean? So trying to become an actor, trying to work in movies, trying to do all these things, which is very hard. That allows me to get my competitiveness out there. You know what I'm saying? It's working towards something and you get it and you're like, Fuck it, let's go. You know what I mean?

Exactly. Same thing. I just finished working on a mixed martial arts fundamental instructional video. I know it's a very competitive industry. There's a lot of great coaches out there. Some have way more experience than I do. But what I did to be different, I pay the production myself to have a better quality of production. I was able to get many different camera angles, slow motion with voiceover to make it more interesting for the audience. Because I know that my English may be not as good as someone who was born, raised in US or UK, for example. I needed to offer the client something different to get me something different. That's why I did it that way. I pay myself $15,000, $20,000 to produce my material. And then I made business with BJJ Fanatic, and they really liked it. So it's doing very well.

It's been a good day for fanatics. So basically you sign up to be a good fanatics and maybe subscribe to a certain section and they can get access to your content.

Yes, exactly. Because I think they're the best distributor. In terms of distribution, they were great. I think in like in fighting, when you're in business, you need to keep your brain, stimulate your brain. You need to do something that is outside the box that is different than your competitors, sometimes to be successful. And sometimes it's a big risk. I took a risk, I spent $15,000, $20,000 to produce my own material. Maybe it wouldn't be successful, but it's doing very well and I'm very happy.

Nice.

I'm going to do more. I'm going to do some more of this. And I think something that you could do yourself as well, Michael, I think you're a great fighter and you have a lot of knowledge that could be teach that a lot of people would like to know.

Well, thank you very much. Talk to me about... Obviously, I commentate. Was that ever on the agenda? Was that ever something you thought about doing?

I did some in French, but it's just I think that there's... Because I live in Montreal and the traveling, it's an issue. It's far. Also, I feel there's guys that are way better than me, way more qualified than me for that job. I've seen you, you're doing very well. It takes time. I did some in French and it takes time to... You could be a good fighter, but it doesn't mean you're a good commentator. It's a skill. It's something like acting, something like like anything else. It takes time to develop.

Especially for me because they used to subtitle me back in the day. I used to be subtitling and now I'm bloody commentating. But you're right, it's definitely a skill. For me, what I love about commentating, obviously it's a great sport and we love it and it changed our lives. I know a bit about your background. We've spoken at length before. For me, it still keeps me involved with the sport because people always ask me and I'm sure you get this question all the time, do you miss it? Do you ever think about making a comeback? And I can honestly say no, I don't think about coming back. I've been there, I've done it. I became the champ. I made some money and I've opened doors to other things. But commentating still allows me to be involved with the sport. I know you're completely done, but the people ask you that a lot. The people say, George, when are you coming back? When are you coming back?

There's a lot of guys that want me to come back because they know I'm still in shape. I think if I really wanted to, I could maybe come back, but my heart is not there anymore. I'm not the same guy that I was when we fought each other. When I was competing, I was my number one priority. I want to be better to kill everyone. I was at fire. You almost.

Did kill me.

I always try to be nice, but deep down inside, you got the same thing inside.

I know.

When you lose that, that I think it's hard to get it back. And it's possible that you get it back, but to be successful, I think it's important to have that fire. A lot of guys, they stay in the sport too long and they lost that fire. That's right. That thing that that animal instinct, that thing that makes you a great fighter. And I think very often it's sad to say, but the fighter itself is the last person to know when it's time to stop.

It's so true. I don't expect you to say this, and this might be controversial. I'm not meaning it to be. But there's that old expression, I think it was Marv in Higgins, this waking up in silk sheets, you don't want to go and run in the morning. When you look at someone like Conor McGregor, that's had ridiculous success and was a two weight division champion, apparently he's got now hundreds of millions, maybe close to a billion dollars. As you say, when you haven't got that fire, and I'm not necessarily talking about Conor McGregor, not talking shit at all. But when you reach a certain level of success, things do change. You know what I mean? You're not that same guy. You're not absolutely broke. You're not fighting for the same reasons. I think you're fighting for pride. But what's your thoughts on that?

I think you're right. In order to improve, to stay in the game, to get ready for a fight, you need to be willing to get out of your comfort zone. And when your life is very comfortable, it's very hard to get out of your comfort zone. When it's been comfortable for a very long time, it's hard to get out of your comfort zone. That's why it's hard to become champion, but it's even harder to stay champion. Because when you get to a comfortable somewhere, it's harder to get outside of your comfort. And you need, in order to maximize, to optimize your preparation for a fight, you need to get outside your comfort zone because when you're going to fight, you're not going to be in your comfort zone. So you need to recreate that environment when you're getting ready for the fight.

Obviously, you were the welterweight champion of the world for a long time. With being champion comes a lot of pressure, right? Towards the end, was that driving you crazy?

For me, the way I saw it, it's hard to explain is the fact that I'm obsessive compulsive. I've never been diagnosed with it, but I have the behavior of an obsessive compulsive disorder guy, which is good when you're in competitive things like Tom Passport, because I use that to get better. It drives me nuts. I'm obsessive about my goal. I'm thinking about it all the time. I'm reading it all the time. When I eat, I'm thinking of it all the time. The best way I can explain it for someone to try to understand is as soon as I finish a fight, there's another guy who call me out, so I have no break. There's another guy. I'm thinking as soon as there's another guy or there's the fight is announced, or there's another guy who is in the horizon that I may fight, something happened in my brain and clap. Right away, I'm focused on that. Your mental energy. I cannot take away this image of me fighting, getting ready for the best I can to solve that problem.

Because I think people don't realise when you're getting ready for a fight, you're training for someone. It's a world title fight. You got to do the press. You got to do all that type of thing. You got to go through the training camp itself, which in many ways is harder than the fight. Then you have the fight, then you finish. And then when you're the champion straight away, boom.

You don't.

Get to rest and go away and enjoy and go on vacation. That's interesting. I never thought of that straight away. Boom. Here's the next guy. Here's the next person you're going up against.

When you're a contender, you fight a guy, then it takes a few weeks, a few months before you get another name. You know what I mean? Because things can change. But when you're the champion, there's a guy waiting immediately after. Right away when you win, there's another guy. So you're like, shit. Mentaly, it feels like you have no break. It feels like, God, you're stressed out again. You're constantly on fighter's flight. It's a survival mode that I don't know. It's something very primal in your brain. It's hard to explain. And the best way I can explain it to people who are not into fighting is I felt with the accumulation, I felt like clust Republic. I felt like I was like I couldn't breathe and I needed to take a time off. That's why I left for more than four years.

Well, you did it. You're a true legend. People say if not the greatest double time, one of the greatest double time. I know you're not going to say that about yourself because you're a very humble man, but who would you say? And I know it's a hypothetical thing and probably people are sick of hearing about it. But in your mind, if you were to pick the goat, who would that goat be? Apart from yourself, because I know you'd never say that. No, I know you're not a dickhead. I would. I'm the goat. I'm the fucking goat. Other than you, who do you think deserves that? Because John Jones is the guy that everyone talks about. And I know you don't want to talk about but then there's the Pika grams and all that stuff. But for me, John Jones is still in the running. I think he's still doing incredible things. But if you had to pick a name, who would you go with?

For me, I think it's Roy Gracie because he did stuff that I don't think I'll ever see again. He was fighting in an era that didn't have any weight classes. The rules were much different. It was very different. Back then, it was totally different thing. You were going into the cage, you thought maybe someone could die. I remember there was a famous fight with Patrick Smith and Morris, a Ninjutsu The guy, Patrick Smith was on top of his opponent towing out when you see a flak of blood and the referee was like this doing nothing. It was bad. It was literally like someone could die out there. So it took an incredible courage. So for me, Rice Gracie is the number one. And of course, if you put Rice Gracy in modern days against a champion, I don't think he will maybe do so well. So I think the real goat, the real real goat is not even born yet because we can talk as much as we want, but I truly believe that their performances tend to get better over time. And it has nothing to do with the persons because I don't think the athletes are better now than they were before.

I don't think it has to do with the person. I think it has to do with knowledge and technology. I think it's because we have more knowledge and more technology. I remember, Michael, when I first started to train for Mixed Martial Arts competition, I wanted to learn Brazilian Jutsu. I needed to go in New York to learn a number, a Jutsu Getami. I need to drive or to be present as a person in the class to learn a number. Now I can take my cell phone, go on YouTube and learn the technique in two seconds. It's crazy. The guys nowadays already start with the head start because of it. It will be the same in the future. It's the same thing. So Rice Gracie, Mark Coleman, Don Friday, Dan Sabern, all these guys, for me, they were the true warrior. We tend to forget about these guys, but they all paved the way for us to have a better life.

100 %, George. It's funny what you mentioned there, because I remember, I think it was 2002, something like that. And we were trying to figure out how to escape a triangle. I remember my coaches and I were sitting around and we were brainstorming and try this, do that. I saw this technique here. I've heard that this works. And we're trying different things. As you said, all you got to do now is go to YouTube and you can see 20 ways. It's crazy.

Yeah. Because we're in touch with the world. So if someone has an idea, is in Japan, we can hear about it. It's a technology that we didn't have back then. So when I was young, I didn't have that technology, that privilege to learn. It makes the learning curves much faster. You know what I mean? A lso, I think even the same thing in science. I think it's Einstein, I said it best. He said, if I've seen further, it's because I'm standing on shoulders of giants. Same thing in sport, same thing in basketball and hockey, baseball and everything. Football, same thing.

Well, the level always increases. As human beings learn more about it, as the training techniques get better, as the resources get better, better coaches, better athletes, all the rest of it.

But I am not sure. Let me ask you this.

Go ahead.

I don't think we get better as human being. I think we get better because of the technology. I think our ego make us think that we're better than our predecessors. But I think if you would take, for example, the champion of tank creation in ancient Greek and make him compete against our champion of modern day, maybe they would win. And I'm going to tell you why, Michael, because they did it for more than 800 years. And after that, the sport was dead. We didn't hear about it until quite recently. And we've been doing MMA for 30 years. It's been maybe 30 years. Imagine how much it would involve in 800 years. It used to be the most popular sport. It was the number one sport. They used to stop war during the Olympic Games to make their best athlete compete. So sometimes I'm really curious, of course, the rules were different. They used to fight naked and everything. But but I'm really curious if they would have better fighters than us. And I think if I have to be objective about that, if someone asked me the question, I think the answer is yes.

Well, that's a good point. Human beings are always getting bigger, faster, stronger. That's why records always get beaten. The 100 metre dash, it's always getting broken every year. So maybe today's athletes would be better. But as you say, 800 years of evolution. Right now, it's only a few years ago, carved kicks started getting used as a thing. And you see the games changing all the time. So 800 years of that, and they were doing it at a much... They didn't have referees, they didn't have judges, they didn't have people going, no downward elbows. You know what I mean? The consequences were much higher.

If you wanted to give up, you had to point the sky. That's how you give up. And the rule were much different. And one thing I remember I saw, they were making... You know GCO when the sprinter, when he sprinted in Berlin before the Second World War, he had the world record of the time. He was sprinting in a different surface, no starting block, no the shoes, the equipment.

Was much different. No typing shoes or no technology in the shoes.

I saw a documentary on the plane the other day. They made André de Grace, who was I think he finished Bronze Medal, the last Olympic Games, or the other one before. And they made him sprint in the same condition that Jesse O'Brien had sprinted before. Jesse O'Brien won the the race. Jesse O'Brien did win the race. However, Jesse O'Brien, when he made the world record at the time, he was in his peak. Andres de Grace was not in his peak because in sprinting, you have to peak. It's like a fight. When you get close to a competition, you're in shape. So maybe that has a lot to do with the result. But it's just to say that proves that technology has a lot to do with the technology, now the knowledge, the drugs. A lot of athletes use drugs. So it has a huge impact on their performance.

Do you you follow modern day mixed martial arts? Are you still a fan? Do you still watch a lot of the pay per views in the fights?

I do. I don't watch every fight because there's simply too many. But I watch the fight years that I like to watch. I think there's some of them that are very interesting to watch.

So who are some of the people that George Napier has to see?

I love all the champion, of course, Wokenowski, who just fought. It was amazing. I missed his fight because I was on the plane, but I watched it after. It was just incredible. He really was. He's one of the greatest of all time. I like to watch Addison. I like to watch a lot of the guys. John Jones is one of the M and Danu. Yeah, all the champions. I like to watch the best guys because when I watch them fight, I learn something.

Yeah, no, of course. Talk to me about the welterweight division. Right now, it's Leon Edwards. He's the champion of the world. He knocked out Kamara Uzman and then he beat him in the rubber match. That was a clear victory. What do you think about the welterweight division right now? What do you think about the champ?

Man, I think he's on fire right now and the sky is the limit for him. I'm excited to see who he's going to go up against. I think is it Colbie?

Colbie. Yeah.

Colbie Colvington? Yeah, it would be interesting. You know what I mean? His style makes fight. So I can't wait. I m a little bit biased because I met Edwards. He was very nice to me. We had a good time together when we were in Manchester. So I wish him the best of luck.

Yeah. No, he's a great guy. He really is. As you say, you mentioned Colbie Coppington there. Colbie's a guy. He will make that fight very interesting because he talks a lot of crap. I think a lot of people seeing us talking like this might be like, Wow, I thought they didn't like each other. And I talked a lot of crap. Of course I did. But I knew... Listen, I was under no illusion. You were the pay per view star. You know what I mean? You were the big, big name. And I was like, Okay, this is going to be the biggest pay day of my life. I'm going to make sure I try and generate every penny I can out of it. So I sold my soul to the devil. I was talking shit. I was embarrassing myself. But you're going up against nick Diaz in a grappling match. Do you think there'll be any shit talk or do you think that's all water under the bridge?

I don't think it will be any shit talking. It's not like mixed martial arts. It's different. I think it's a different sport. I can't speak for him. And it's not sure it's not nick Diaz. I don't know. That's the name they gave me. And we're going to see. They said that he was interesting. I don't know. We'll see what's going to happen.

If nick Diaz doesn't want to do it, I'll grapple you, George. I owe you one.

I lot of guys want to grab hold me. I saw some tweet and some Instagram posts. It all has to do with money. Everybody wants to be there. It's like Conor McGregor, for example. Everybody want to fight Conor McGregor. It's the money fights. That's what people care about. It's the freaking money.

Hey, well, money comes in handy. Right, so let's go through here. I'm looking at Twitter right now and I'm going to see if there's any good questions. How did it feel to joy b isping? Yeah, ignore that one. Thank you. What advice would you give to an up and coming fighter?

An advice I would say, well, first, you might not like my answer, but I've seen a lot of parents coming with their kids and they're always telling me, Hey, George, this is the future world champion. I go on my knees and I talk to the kids, I ask them, I say, Hey, how are you doing at school? And everybody is surprised. And I tell them, I say, You know what's the most important thing for you right now? It's to be educated. Educate yourself. Do sport. Make sure you do it, if you like it, it's a good self defense. But don't put all your eggs in the same basket because if you get hurt or let's say you get hit by a car, everything goes away. And if you only focus on fighting and then by the age of 30, you realize that you just can't make it. If you have no background in school, you have nothing that you can fall back into. So I tell you, it's very... The odds are against you. If you plan on being Michael Batesping or George St. Pierre, the odds are against you. You can't make it. Take that idea outside of your head.

But yeah, stay at school, educate yourself, keep training hard. And down the line, if you see that an opportunity comes and you make it, you make it. But you'll have an education as an assurance if something goes bad. You have a second option if something doesn't go your first choice. So that's what I say to the kid. My first advice would say stay at school and educate yourself first. And then once you got that covered, now go for it.

Yeah, and that's smart advice because I speak to a lot of young men that are struggling and they're lost in life and they don't know what to do and they've got no direction. And some of them say they want to fight and all the rest of it. But I think what you just said there is advice for anyone, not even just a fighter. But what would you say to any young men out there that feel lost, that have no direction, that they don't know what to do with themselves? Have you got any advice you could give them?

Yeah. I don't know what I wanted to do. Except being a fighter. At one point, even I tried to become a fireman. You know what I mean? I've tried everything. I had different deployments in different things. I can install ceramic on the floor. A lot of people don't know I graduated in that, too. I wanted to be a fireman, but they wrote me a letter saying, We can take you in the school, in the fireman's school, but you don't... There are certain criteria that are required and add something in my back like a vertebrae that is offline. So therefore, I wouldn't be the first pick if they have the choice of choosing me and then someone else. They advise me to not do this. I was thinking, I was like, Oh, I can be an MMA fighter, but not a fireman. That doesn't make sense. You know what I mean? But what I say is it is normal when you're young and you don't know what to do. It is normal because when you're 20 years old, you're not the same person that when you were 15. When you're 25, you're not the same that when you were 20 and 30, same thing.

I think that when you're about 30, it starts to stabilize a little bit. There's less changes. It's all different. Every individual are different, but that's what I feel. Give yourself some time, but in the meantime, it's hard. It's like grind. Educate yourself. Find yourself some hobbies. I know it's sad sometimes if you don't know what you really want to do. If you want to be a fighter, make sure you stay in shape. Educate yourself. But always have yourself an assurance that if something doesn't go your way, at least you have something that you can fall back into to make some money. That's my main thing.

That's amazing because I think you look at that when one door closes, it's not the end of the world. That's just creating other opportunities. Like yourself, I tried to join the army and the army wouldn't take me because I had a couple of scraps in bars and they were like, Oh, you've got a criminal record. And they wouldn't take me. And I cried. I was in tears on the phone. I was crying my eyes out. I thought, Because I was trying to get my life together. I had no direction when I was younger. I was an idiot. I was drinking, I was partying. I was getting up to no good and getting arrested for just bar fights. I was never a criminal. I was just a young idiot. I thought, Right, I'm going to join the army. I'm going to get my shit together. And they said, No. And I cried my eyes out on the phone. I thought, It's over. I can't even join the army. And then it was a blessing in disguise.

Yeah. And you know, Michael, I'm sure thing for you, you can talk about it. Do you know how many guys... I know there's a lot of young guys that are watching this. Do you know how many guys I see in the gym who dream to become a fighter? Who dream to become a fighter. But I know we're not all born with the same set of card. You know what I mean? There's a minimum that you need to have in order to get there. You know what I mean? Outside of that, the star needs to be aligned. You need to work hard. There's a lot of things. You know what I mean? The odds of success are very small and there's a lot of guys I see in the gym. I feel sorry for them. I like to train because the gym is the place that I can release my anger. It's very therapeutic for me to go train. It makes me feel good and help me to be a better person. But it's also very sad because I see a lot of guys there that sometimes they ask me for advice. They say, Hey, George, what do you think I should do?

They ask me training advice, but the real advice that I would give them, I would say, Hey, my friend, you're 30 years old, you lost three fight in a row, you're still in a minor league. I think you should get your shift together and find a real job because now you're just a punching bag for the up and comer. You know what I mean? And there's a lot more of these guys than guys like Michael Batesping or Jors St. Pierre. You only hear about the one that makes it.

So.

That's why people dream about this. But the odds, that's not the reality. The odds are really small.

And especially now because mixed martial arts is more popular than ever. Everybody wants to be a fighter these days. Great advice.

George, same thing in football, same thing in hockey, same thing in everything.

My daughter wants to be an actress. So many people want to be an actress.

Same thing. Senior actress, anything.

Yeah. So she's going to acting class and all the rest of it. But I'm saying, Ellie, you have to do something else. She's changing College next year. She wants to do something in performing arts. But I'm like, sweetheart, of course, you got to dream. And that's amazing to have a dream. And I think it's important for any young men or women to have a dream and have a goal and dream big. You know what I mean? But also, I'm like... Some people say don't have a plan B because that's giving yourself an insurance policy. But I'm like, Ellie, you got to train in something else as well, because everybody wants to be a bloody movie star, you know what I mean? And the chances of that happening are probably less than becoming George St. Pierre.

And the sad thing about this industry and it's not like fighting. Fighting, if you're the best, you're going to make it because you beat the guy. They have no choice unless you do something crazy outside that destroy your reputation. But in acting, you could be very good but they're going to choose the other guy because the connection or anything. It's sad to say, but I've seen a lot of this.

Yeah, you're absolutely right. Well, listen, we'll let you go there, George. George St. Pierre is coming back to the fight pass invitation. Tbd sometime in December. I'll be training with you.

You come down. Michael, this thing is coming back too, by the way. You heard of it? Let's go.

Let's fucking go.

George, you are the absolute man. I'm proud to call you a friend these days. And what am I proud of those moments was sharing the obstacle with you that time. So thank you for that. Thank you for the memories and thank you for your time today.

One of my best moments was to share a few drinks with you in Manchester last night.

It was a legendary time. Tell you, Bruno, I say hi.

Yes, sir.

Have a great weekend and I'll talk to you soon. All the best, George. You the best. Bye. Take care. You too. Take care, brother. There it is. Later, George.

Thank you. Bye, guys.