Georges St-Pierre, one of the most decorated and respected champions in MMA history, has always been a thoughtful voice on the evolution of the sport. With the UFC reaching unprecedented levels of commercial success—weekly fight cards, record-setting ticket sales, and looming broadcasting deals—it would be easy to assume that all is well in the house Dana White built.
Yet beneath the glossy metrics and corporate momentum, a more nuanced concern is brewing: the UFC may be thriving financially, but what about its soul?
St-Pierre recently appeared on the IMPAULSIVE podcast, where he was asked to weigh in on the current state of UFC stardom. And while GSP is never one to sensationalize, his take was clear: the UFC needs to do more to cultivate future stars. “Conor McGregor, I believe, is an anomaly,” he said. “Love me, hate me, but don’t ignore me. He did something that was unbelievable. It’s hard to try to recreate that, it will happen at one point, for sure. Records are made to be broken. But right now, because nobody can do what Conor has done, I don’t think it’s because they don’t have any stars. They have stars. They had Sean O’Malley, but now Sean O’Malley lost. They had Israel Adesanya, he lost a few times, it’s unfortunate for UFC because he was a big name. [Alex] Pereira, same thing, just lost.”
It’s a solid observation. McGregor may have defined the era of the megastar, but his decline—from injuries to mounting legal issues—has left a power vacuum the UFC has struggled to fill. O’Malley, Adesanya, Pereira: all household names each now carries the burden of recent defeats. The harsh reality of MMA is that people lose, and the caliber of fighters in the UFC is much better now than it was during McGregor’s era.
Take a look at the NFL. There are some real greats from back in the day, like pre-1980. But could those athletes at their highest level compete with the NFL players of today? No.
MMA has evolved; there are more fighters, it’s more global, and there’s a greater abundance of talent.
St-Pierre’s comments also touch on a fundamental tension in MMA: the balance between sport and spectacle. Fighters rise fast, but fall faster, often on a single bad night. GSP himself was famously knocked out by Matt Serra in one of the sport’s greatest upsets. That brutal unpredictability is baked into the DNA of MMA—but it’s also what makes promoting long-term stars incredibly difficult.
GSP also hit on something I feel is what is plaguing the UFC.
GSP expressed hope that the UFC would return to a more principled matchmaking strategy after recent letdowns like the collapse of Jon Jones vs. Tom Aspinall and Islam Makhachev vs. Ilia Topuria. “As a businessman, I think the goal of UFC is to make money,” he said. “No. 1, it’s not good for them because if one of their superstars lose, it’s not good. But on the other side, I don’t think they necessarily try to give—I mean, they might do it sometimes, to give a good dancing partner to certain guys so it promotes them, but when you’re champion, you take the No. 1 contender. That’s how it should be.”
