Georges St-Pierre says he will retire from the UFC if he loses in his comeback fight

Georges St-Pierre has revealed that he will not be a punching bag for the younger talent in the UFC if he does not perform at the necessary level.

The former welterweight champion (25-2 record in MMA) returned to the UFC after over three years as it was soon announced in March that he would take on middleweight champion Michael Bisping for the title.

However, with no confirmed date nearly three months on, UFC president Dana White recently called the fight off, saying that they will not wait for "GSP", who was only available to fight after October instead of in the summer.

St-Pierre instead claims the UFC knew he would not be able to fight in the summer due to an eye injury, stating that he would only be able to spar in September.

"When the fight got announced with the press conference, we knew that we couldn't fight in the summer. UFC knew as well that I couldn't fight in the summer," St-Pierre said on The MMA Hour. "They knew that I had an eye injury, but we still did the press conference, and I felt very uncomfortable during this whole time.

"Everybody has advisors, and I was advised to not talk about it, not talk about my eye injury. As an athlete, you don't want to talk about these things. If you know about it now, it's because this whole thing became out of proportion, it turned into a very negative thing. As athletes, we all have injuries and don't want to talk about this, because it gives you weaknesses, something that your opponent can exploit."

When the fight was still on, there were rumours that St-Pierre's master plan was to win the middleweight, welterweight and lightweight titles. And with the 35-year-old set to face the welterweight champion now, he claims that if he fails to win in his return fight, he will retire for good.

"One thing I can tell you for sure, I am at one fight from retiring for good," he explained. "This I can tell you for sure. If I come back and I lose, this is it for me, it's finished."

"It's over and I don't want to hang in there to be a punching bag for the younger people. I do not believe I will lose and feel I am the best, I put a lot on the line and I do feel I am a better version than when I left.

"If down the road I lose, I pass the torch and I am finished. I will be fighting like there is no tomorrow. That's when I am at my best. But, look at my record, I don't lose very often so I could still be there for a while."