Georges St-Pierre recently revealed that his move up to middleweight was the primary reason for his retirement from MMA. In November 2017, he made a comeback to challenge Michael Bisping for the middleweight title at UFC 217, but the process of gaining weight to compete at 185 pounds took a toll on his body. He developed ulcerative colitis, an inflammation of the intestine, which led him to give up his middleweight title and ultimately retire just over a month after defeating Bisping.
In a recent interview on the “Pound 4 Pound” podcast, St-Pierre explained how the struggle to put on weight and the development of ulcerative colitis pushed him into retirement. Initially fearing that the disease was life-threatening, he turned to intermittent fasting to alleviate his symptoms. Through this method, he was able to completely cure his ulcerative colitis and no longer needed medication.
Before his diagnosis, St-Pierre experienced severe symptoms including significant amounts of blood in his stool. Despite his worries, he chose to focus on his fight with Bisping and put off further medical investigation until after the bout. After the fight, he underwent a colonoscopy to determine the cause of his symptoms and was relieved to find that intermittent fasting had resolved his health issues.