George St. Pierre Tells McGregor to Stop Running His Own Camp If He Wants to Win Again

McGregor last got his hand raised in 2020 when he knocked out Donald Cerrone, then in 2021, he suffered back-to-back losses to Dustin Poirier at UFC 257 in the second round by TKO and at their trilogy fight when he broke his leg at the end of round one at UFC 264. His comeback against Michael Chandler at UFC 303 in 2024 also fell through after he broke his toe.

After five years, he then returned to face Max Holloway in a rematch at UFC 329. However, the bout lasted only 69 seconds as he tore his ACL and meniscus in his right knee and lost by TKO due to the injury.

The former two-division champion had knee surgery and is now back in the gym, working on his recovery. His longtime coach John Kavanagh, during a recent sit-down on the Ariel Helwani show, said that the Irishman has been “very aggressive with therapy” and expects him to return to training camp in 2027.

Before the UFC 329 fight against Holloway, GSP spoke about McGregor's comeback on the Double Coverage Podcast with Mystic Zack and shared what he needs to change to win again.

George St. Pierre Wants McGregor to Let His Coach Be the Boss

The UFC Hall of Famer has also made comebacks of his own. In 2012, he returned from an ACL tear to beat Carlos Condit and then, after almost four years, in 2017, he returned to win the middleweight title against Michael Bisping.

The Canadian feels the then 37-year-old needed to get out of his comfort zone and let his coach, Kavanagh, take charge of training camp. George St. Pierre even called Kavanagh "a genius" and said,

“What I think he needs to do is to get out of his comfort zone, to not be the boss of his training camp. Let your trainer be the boss and tell you what to do... When you’re in a fight, you don’t decide what’s going to happen. You just have to react to whatever the problem is.”

"When you get money and reach a certain status, you’re sort of a boss. But you don’t want to be a boss while you’re training. You want to be like anybody else, another number,” St-Pierre said.

Kavanagh has previously guided "The Notorious" to featherweight gold in 2015 and then to the lightweight title in 2016. In the same interview, St. Pierre also revealed that during his prime, he paid to fly in new sparring partners whose style matched his opponents to keep him out of his comfort zone.

George St. Pierre Thinks Money Has Made McGregor Less Hungry

According to GSP, a part of the problem was McGregor's fame and wealth. He believes it's difficult to train with that hunger once you have everything, pointing to a famous line from boxing Legend Marvin Hagler: "It's tough to wake up and run in the morning when you wake up in silk pajamas.”

McGregor's recent record seems to back that up. 

Now, "The Notorious" has one last fight left on his UFC deal. He has named International Fight Week 2027 as “The Last Dance," and at the BKFC post-fight press conference earlier this month, he said his last bout has to be a trilogy fight against Holloway.