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Cage-fighting and children’s books don’t often figure in the same sentence. But St-Pierre wasn’t your average fighter.

Growing up, he lacked confidence — something bullies took advantage of. So his parents put him in martial arts.

It started as a self-defence tool but over time it became a passion. And it helped him build his self-confidence.

“By changing myself from the inside out, my bullying problems stopped,” he said.

The former two-division UFC champion will be sharing his journey Sept. 29 in “An Evening with Georges St-Pierre: The Instinct of a Champion” at Toronto’s Meridian Hall. 

Kingsley will be the moderator, the conduit to help the 44-year-old St-Pierre open up about his life and challenges. Having known St-Pierre for 15 years, Kingsley has plenty to draw from.

“He knows which buttons he’s going to press to make the emotions come out,” St-Pierre said with a smile.

“He’s not going to make me cry on stage,” he added with a laugh. “He’s going to try but I’m going to resist.”

St-Pierre and Kingsley first met 15 years ago when Kingsley, then working at the Montreal-based Sid Lee creative agency, was engaged to work on the mixed martial artist’s brand. They went on to become training partners.

“I was training with an encyclopedia. And then we just became friends,” recalled Kingsley, a former Canadian Press sportswriter turned author, film-maker and photographer.

When he started working on GSP’s book, he told the fighter he had to know everything about him. In response, St-Pierre gave him his house key and went to the gym.

St-Pierre was a force in the UFC, helping build a worldwide audience for the mixed martial arts promotion. In 2010, UFC president Dana White famously declared GSP the “most famous athlete to ever, ever — in the history of the world — come out of Canada.”

The longtime king of the welterweight division, St-Pierre officially retired in February 2019 with a 26-2-0 record. He quit at the top, riding a 13-fight win streak, after winning the middleweight title at UFC 217 in November 2017 at Madison Square Garden.

The stress of fighting for a living at the highest level had taken its toll.

“I never liked it because the expectation is unbearable,” he acknowledged.

“The thing I was most afraid of was to be humiliated … because I cared so much what people thought of me,” he added

He said he learned to deal with his fear.

“Before every fight, I was scared, I was terrified,” he said. “But I had faith in myself. I was confident. I knew that I was the best version of myself.”

St-Pierre’s training was legendary, incorporating everything from gymnastics to power-lifting. He would do pull-ups with a 75-pound weight chained to his waist.

As his training went, so did his fights. But there were bumps along the way.

His first title defence, at UFC 69 in April 2007, turned into a disaster when his fight camp was overshadowed by his father’s illness and other family matters. He lost the title to Matt (The Terror) Serra in one of the biggest upsets in UFC history.

On the advice of a sports psychologist, he hurled a brick with Serra’s name on it into the icy water off Montreal’s South Shore. And he won his title back off Serra in dominant fashion a year later at UFC 83 in Montreal.

Each opponent was a puzzle to be conquered. St-Pierre, a black belt in karate and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, specialized in taking away his opponent’s advantages.

At UFC 87 in August 2008, St-Pierre was good on seven of nine takedown attempts against Jon Fitch, an accomplished former Purdue wrestler.

Fitch had won his previous 16 bouts. But after 25 minutes with St-Pierre, Fitch looked like he had been in a car wreck — both eyes blackened, his left almost swollen shut. There were stitches above and below his left eye and below his right.

St-Pierre said he learned to “domesticate” his fear, if not shed it. He built up his confidence, through preparation.

“The confidence is not the absence of fear, it’s knowing that you have what you need in order to succeed. The fear will never disappear. It’s there and it’s there to stay,” he explained. “And as long as you have fear before doing something important, you know that you’re on point, you’re sharp. Because that feeling is your friend.”

St-Pierre says he retired when he realized he could not please everybody, and that the only opinions that mattered were those of the people he loved and who loved him.

He calls it “ego death.”

St-Pierre believes he is a better person today as a result. But he also knows without that ego, he would not have had the drive or fighting career that he did.

These days he is happy to feed his competitive side in the gym, helping other fighters train.

“I’m not who I was but I’m still content with showing them who’s daddy sometimes. Because I’ve still got it,” he said with a grin.

St-Pierre, a native of Saint-Isidore, Que., who is a member of both the Canada Sports Hall of Fame and UFC Hall of Fame, has not slowed down since.

He was recently in Italy, attending social media star Logan Paul’s wedding at Lake Como. There was a trip to Thailand to work on a reality TV show. He continues to make films, work with sponsors and pursue such interests as paleontology.

“I’m busier now than when I was when I was competing but I can enjoy my life more. I can breathe. I don’t have the same stress I used to have.”

Kingsley says while the retired St-Pierre is the same person, “part of him isn’t there.” 

“That unpleasant Georges (the warrior preparing for a fight) … That person’s not there any more,” he said. 

“The thing that hasn’t changed that is seductive to me is the curiosity and the positivity. The openness to learn … The challenger mindset didn’t retire with him. The challenger mindset has continued, but now it’s nutrition, it’s business, it’s film.”

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2025.