Canadian Georges St-Pierre, who ruled the UFC welterweight division before putting a bow on a glittering career by winning the middleweight title in his final outing, is headed to the UFC Hall of Fame.
The announcement was made during UFC 249 in Jacksonville, Fla., the UFC's first live show in two months due to the global pandemic.
The mixed martial arts fighter known as GSP was a pay-per-view gold mine for the UFC.
UFC president Dana White said, ``Georges St-Pierre is the most famous athlete to ever come out of Canada and one of the greatest martial artists of all-time.
In 2010, White sparked a debate when he said St-Pierre was ``a billion times more famous than any other athlete that's ever come out of Canada. Including Wayne Gretzky.''
A Canadian Press-Harris Decima survey grading Canadian celebrities in January 2011 disagreed, calling Gretzky No. 1 and GSP seventh.
St. Pierre (26-2-0) will be officially inducted into the Hall of Fame later this year.
He will enter the Hall's ``Modern Wing,'' and joins Forrest Griffin (2013), B.J. (The Prodigy) Penn (2015), Urijah (The California Kid) Faber (2017), (Rowdy) Ronda Rousey (2018), Michael (The Count) Bisping (2019) and Rashad (Suga) Evans (2019).
He officially retired Feb. 21, 2019.
with files from (The Canadian Press)