Former UFC welterweight kingpin Georges St Pierre recently returned to training last month, (See that HERE). St. Pierre offered some advice to his fellow UFC champions, and how they need to look at their careers as a business, and be careful of the company they keep.
St. Pierre spoke on Chael Sonnen’s new podcast, ‘You’re Welcome’ with some life advice for not only fighters, but also people in general.
“One thing I can advise the professional athlete in mixed martial arts, you have to take it in a way that, you need to see your career as a business. I’m not qualified, I’m not competent for business because I’m a martial artist. I am competent to fight. So, when it is time to negotiate deals, or deal with my taxes or lawyer, I’m hiring the best people, the people I could find most competent for the job.”
“I don’t try to do this stuff myself or to pick one of my friends. A lot of fighters, they got caught up in those kind of things and I did myself as well, I had a lot of problems, I got different law disputes and stuff like that, I lost a lot of money. I made a lot of money, but I could have made way more. I’m lucky because it happened in the beginning of my career, and I learned from those mistakes.”
“The problem, when you are going up, you have a lot of fake friends, a lot of people who tell you ‘you can trust me,’ and this and that. It happened to me. I’m not better than anyone else. I got my share of mistakes as well. But I got lucky. … You need good people around you to make the most and assure yourself a future.”
Recently people have been calling out the UFC for underpaying it’s fighters, which can be seen by Marcus Brimage’s near impoverished living conditions (See that HERE).
“Nothing breaks my heart more than in this world than to see an athlete who has an outstanding career and then when he is finished, he retires, he is broke. I heard that in newspapers in documentaries. I’ve seen it many times in football and MMA and it broke my heart. Please guys, make sure you are well surrounded, not by friends but by competent people.”