UFC Hall of Famer Georges St-Pierre weighed in on the performance of Nick Diaz at UFC 266, saying that “for sure he was rusty.”

After more than six years away from the Octagon, Diaz returned to the Octagon last month when he fought rival Robbie Lawler in a rematch that was 17 years in the making. After Diaz knocked out Lawler back at UFC 47 in 2004, the two rematched all these years later, with Diaz losing in the third round via TKO. It was a good performance overall by both fighters, who were praised by UFC president Dana White for their war, but Diaz still didn’t do enough to get his hand raised. If you ask St-Pierre, ring rust played a factor in that.

Speaking to Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports, St-Pierre pointed to ring rust as one of the reasons why Diaz lost to Lawler at UFC 266.

“It was a tough night for him because he came back after six or seven years. It was a long, long time. Nobody can come back as good as they were before, after that much time. I’m under the impression that Nick left a lot of money on the table, unfortunately for him, because maybe his best years are behind him. For sure he was rusty,” St-Pierre said (via SportsKeeda).

St-Pierre himself knows about long layoffs. After beating Johny Hendricks in 2013, GSP took four years off from competing before coming back to defeat Michael Bisping in 2017. Of course, St-Pierre is a gym rat who constantly keeps himself in shape, even when he wasn’t actively fighting. While Diaz himself is generally in great shape, he did not appear to be in optimal physical condition for the Lawler fight, as he asked for it to be moved up to middleweight during fight week. Still, he put up a good fight for as long as it lasted.

Do you agree with Georges St-Pierre that Nick Diaz was rusty against Robbie Lawler at UFC 266?