Georges St-Pierre: Conor McGregor must embrace 'hell zone' for UFC 329

Georges St-Pierre believes Conor McGregor can rediscover his championship form at UFC 329, but only if the Irishman stops being the boss and starts suffering again.

McGregor returns from a five-year layoff to face Max Holloway in a welterweight bout headlining UFC 329 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on July 11. The former two-division champion, who turns 38 days after the fight, has pledged to rededicate himself to training after a turbulent stretch away from competition that included a civil liability ruling for sexual assault, a failed bid for Irish president, part-ownership of BKFC, and a starring role in a Road House remake.

St-Pierre on McGregor's path back to elite form

In an interview with The Break Talk, as reported by MMA Fighting, St-Pierre laid out what McGregor must do to compete at a high level again. "I think if Conor can put himself back into the grind and be hungry, into that hell zone," St-Pierre said. "He has to see it in a way that like he's in the tunnel, but the light is after the fight. I have to go through that journey in order to see the light, but I'm not going to put myself in the light until I'm done with the fight. If he puts himself into that zone, we're going to have a hell of a fight."

The Hall of Famer warned that wealth and comfort work against fighters trying to make a comeback. McGregor needs to hand control to his coaches and endure the same brutal preparation that forged him into one of the most feared knockout artists in UFC history, St-Pierre said. When you are the boss and decide your own training conditions, you cannot recreate the chaos and discomfort of an actual fight, he explained.

McGregor has fought just four times since 2016, winning only once in that stretch with a knockout of Donald Cerrone in January 2020. St-Pierre said the skills remain if McGregor is willing to put himself through what he called an army of training partners waiting to beat him up in the gym. "He certainly has the skills to do it if he really wanted to," St-Pierre said, per MMA Fighting. "The question is just that he needs to put himself into that position. Not be the boss, let your coach be the boss."

UFC 329 takes place July 11 in Las Vegas.

Photo: Web Summit / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

Original reporting:

• mmafighting.com — Georges St-Pierre: Conor McGregor must put himself in ‘hell zone’ to have successful comeback at UFC 329 | MMA Fighting