fightersonlymagazine - Q&A with GSP

Georges St. Pierre revealed a surprising thing in a quick chat with Fighters Only this weekend - he doesn’t do strength and conditioning. At least, not for his fighting. He does have a weightlifting regime but this is to make him “more marketable”.

Connor Cordova had a few quick words with the UFC welterweight champion, who just finished a six-week stint as a coach on The Ultimate Fighter season 12.

FO: Could you have gone that route, staying in the TUF house for six weeks?

No, I could never do this. I am a good fighter but, for the social part… I am not gonna lie, some of the guys are quite different from the average human being so I wouldn’t be able to survive in the house.

FO: Is training the nervous system for explosiveness the next big thing in mixed martial arts?

I don’t do strength and conditioning. The reason I lift weights is to make me more marketable, to make my shape more symmetric. I don’t life weights to have an effect on my performance, I don’t believe in it.

I believe sometimes you can do some exercises that help the nervous system. Like Olympic lifting, it makes you more explosive. Olympic lifters are the most explosive athletes in the world. Also gymnastics, I like gymnastics, I think it makes me more athletic.

FO: So why are people still training with strength and conditioning coaches rather than doing things your way?

I am the only one who does it that way, I don’t say that I have the right answer I don’t know, but for me it is very good and it works so far. But I have been doing this pretty recently, so we’ll see.

Watching the fight between Anderson Silva and Chael Sonnen, and how Sonnen used takedowns to dominate, did you think “I could do that against Anderson”?

Not at all. I watched that fight because I like Anderson Silva and the way he fights, I learn every time that Anderson Silva fights. I like to watch the best guys in the business fighting because I learn from them and Anderson Silva is one of them. Chael Sonnen now became one of them. But no id didn’t… like, its not in my radar right now [,a fight with Anderson].