You know…the kind with probes.

Kenny Florian, who is St-Pierre’s training partner and also a fellow UFC fighter, recently revealed the pound-for-pound great has a legitimate fear of alien abduction.

“There’s a little known fact about Georges St-Pierre and, sorry Georges, he is deathly afraid of aliens. This guy is very scared of being abducted by aliens,” said Florian on a segment for UFC Tonight. “We’d always try and tell him a story, have someone come in and say they were once abducted by aliens to really freak Georges out. That’s one of his big fears.”

“I’m dead serious,” Florian continued. “This is Georges biggest fear. He is probably the best fighter in the world and he’s afraid of aliens.”

Check out the full clip from Florian below where he also talks about GSP’s stand against bullying and his own introduction to martial arts:

PHOTO CREDIT – UFC

The accomplished wrestler is just the second fighter to hold wins over both Koscheck and Jon Fitch, two former title-contenders. The other man to do so is current UFC welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre.

“Josh Koscheck, because he gets booed, may not get the respect that he deserves, but he’s a great fighter and has been for a long time and Johny Hendricks won (Saturday),” said White during the show’s post-fight press conference. “Whether you agree with the decision or not, cause some people think that Koscheck won or it should’ve been a Draw, it was that close. I think a fight with Hendricks vs. GSP is pretty interesting.”

The 28-year-old Hendricks has rebounded from a loss to Rick Story to earn his spot among the elite in the division. While a title-shot may still be a ways off, Hendricks is right there at the top in terms of potential options.

St-Pierre and interim champ Carlos Condit are scheduled to meet later this year when St-Pierre returns from knee surgery, while Jake Ellenberger-Martin Kampmann are fighting in June to determine the man who will face the winner of GSP-Condit.

The full UFC on FOX 3 press conference can be found below:

PHOTO CREDIT – UFC

“Yeah, I was (bullied),” St-Pierre said in the interview. “It was a long time ago. I was in school growing up and that’s why I started doing martial arts; to defend myself.”

St-Pierre has a foundation set up to help with bullying. He also talked in the interview about wishing he could seek out his past torturers and teach them a lesson, though it seems perhaps a reluctant “thank you” could be in order considering his overall success.

Currently GSP is rehabbing from knee surgery. He is scheduled to unify the title with Carlos Condit‘s interim belt upon his return, tentatively in November.

You can view the entire interview with St-Pierre below:

PHOTO CREDIT – UFC

St-Pierre updated fans on his condition this week during a segment on Ultimate Insider documenting his rehabilitation from surgery to repair his knee including interviews with the UFC star’s doctor and physical therapist.

“I feel like I (was) just reborn. I can’t wait to be back and I’ll be better than ever because of it,” explained the 30-year old champion. “I feel sometimes I want to do a little bit more, push through the pain and try to go fast.”

However, after learning his lesson in 2011 where the recovery process is concerned, St-Pierre has no problem being patient this time around.

“The most dangerous thing is to come back too fast and re-injure it again so I need to step back sometime. So even though I feel good and I want to do more I have to do less and follow the protocol.”

St-Pierre closed the conversation by assuring the public he’s ahead of schedule and vowed he will fight before the year’s end. He is expected to face interim title-holder Carlos Condit in November at a Montreal event where the two will unify the belts.

Check out the full segment below titled “Rebuilding a Champion”:

PHOTO CREDIT – UFC

After pulling out of a planned bout last year with a different knee injury GSP went too hard in practice and injured his other knee, resulting in torn ligaments and major surgery. Now, months removed from the operation, he is starting to feel more like his old self.

“It feels very good,” said St. Pierre of his leg in a recent interview with MMA Junkie. “In two months, I’m back to training. I’m in good shape now, but I’m not in fighting shape. In two months it’ll be 100 percent. Now I feel something is not 100 percent. But in two months, it’ll be out of mind.”

“Rush” still looks to be targeting November 17 for his return when the UFC has a show planned for his hometown of Montreal. Barring another injury GSP will face Carlos Condit to unify his title with Condit’s interim belt.

PHOTO CREDIT – UFC

In a video released by the UFC, St. Pierre is seen enjoying himself rather than being overly concerned with his physical health, a good sign for those curious about the champion’s condition. On to of being good PR and an enjoyable experience, the latter stop also held personal significance for GSP based on his own upbringing.

“(Kyokushin karate) was the first martial art that I started when I was seven years old and my dad used to teach me. And I’ve kept practicing since then. So for me, to come here to Japan to do Kyokushin…it’s an honor because that’s where it comes from,” explained St. Pierre.

“I think karate is very important. Karate is not only about physical and training,” he continued. “Yes, it makes you in great shape and teaches you how defend yourself, but karate is a lot more than this. Karate is also in life. It’s about how you treat people, it’s about respect, it’s about hard work…work ethic…so for kids it’s a very good sport to start. For myself, karate saved my life. I became a better person because of karate and for me it’s more than a sport – it’s a lifestyle.”

Check out the endearing clip below including St. Pierre being a good sport during a foam-bat beatdown from a group of young kendo students:

PHOTO CREDIT – UFC

“The thing with Nick, he thinks he’s better than me. I think I’m better than him. I’m sure sooner or later we’ll have a chance to do it,” said a hopeful St. Pierre. “Fighting, that’s what he does best. He should not retire. He’s in his prime. I’m asking personally for him to not retire. For the fans, for me, and also for himself…let’s do it. It has to be done.”

Still, St. Pierre knows Diaz is not next in line for him no matter what, adding, “But before that I need to get back to the title. I need to fight Carlos, the #1 guy. Carlos did an amazing job fighting (Diaz). He’s an incredible martial artist. And for me, to go fight him…I take that fight as a great honor. Without a doubt he’s the best fighter that I will meet in my entire career.”

Condit earned his crack at St. Pierre’s linear title by outpointing Diaz at UFC 143. As far as when their in-ring meeting will actually take place, St. Pierre is still targeting the final quarter of 2012 for his comeback but doesn’t want to rush things, risking a setback that might sideline him for even longer or worse.

“I feel very good. I’m ahead of schedule,” explained St. Pierre. “I feel sometimes I want to do a little bit more but even though I feel good my graft is not fused properly…100%. So I need to remain calm. The danger with a lot of athletes is to push through the pain and try to go too fast (but) if I do so I might loosen up the graft and I might have to start the whole process all over again. And I don’t want to do that.”

Check out the full interview with GSP below:

PHOTO CREDIT – UFC

UFC

Now that St. Pierre has had some time to reflect on things he has re-evaluated how interested he actually is in fighting Diaz, at least when it comes to an expected defense of his title in November.

“I want to fight the best man, and the best man is Condit,” said the 22-2 champion in an interview on Bruce Buffer‘s Sherdog show , adding emotion had clouded his judgment beforehand. Still, that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t mind settling the score with Diaz at some point down the road.

“As far as Diaz, of course I would like to fight him because he thinks he’s better than me (and) I think I’m better than him,” explained St. Pierre before turning talk to the controversial Californian’s future. “But I think he should not retire. He did all of the sacrifice in his life to be where he’s at right now. He’s at the highest point of his career, and if he retires now, he’s left a lot of money on the table that could pay for all of the sacrifices he has made during all those years. I think the sport of mixed martial arts needs a guy like him.”

Diaz has not commented since saying he was retiring from MMA after his disgust with the judges’ decision in his fight with Condit. The 28-year old was the more aggressive, less technical of the two this past Saturday night and paid for it with the defeat.

PHOTO CREDIT – UFC

While UFC welterweight champ Georges St. Pierre has not come out to officially say he’d be willing to relinquish his rights to the title in order to fight polarizing rival Nick Diaz, it appears he has mentioned he’s open to doing so in private company.

The shocking revelation came Tuesday evening as part of UFC Tonight where host Kenny Florian, who is friends with GSP and trains with him at TriStar, said the currently injured St. Pierre brought it up over dinner after watching Carlos Condit outpoint Diaz last weekend at UFC 143.

Condit earned a shot at St. Pierre with the victory though it may be in vain if “Rush” follows through on his comments by giving up his belt to settle the score with Diaz. During the build up to the Diaz-Condit bout GSP expressed his desire to see Diaz win after the Stockton scrapper called him out after beating B.J. Penn in his previous Octagon appearance.

PHOTO CREDIT – UFC

St. Pierre, who has successfully defended the title since 2008, tore a ligament in his knee while training for the bout with Diaz and has since undergone successful surgery. The operation will keep him away from competition for several months, forcing the UFC’s hand in crowning a champion in his place.

While technically GSP will still be part owner of the title, he doesn’t feel that way at all.

“The way I see it, I am not the champion anymore on Saturday night,” St. Pierre said, in a recent interview with the UFC’s website. “I have not fought since April, against my will, but I understand the champion must fight. Right now I am not the best in the world, I am injured.”

St. Pierre added that he feels the winner of Diaz-Condit must beat him to call themselves the world champion, while he has to do the same to feel like the best in the world once again.

As for who St. Pierre wants to fight, that’s an easy one, as the soft-spoken fighter said, “I respect Carlos Condit, but I want Diaz to win. I want this fight with Diaz so badly, as badly as I wanted the title shot when I got down on my knees. I have never asked (UFC president) Dana White for anything, but I did ask to fight Nick Diaz.”

GSP’s timetable for a return continues to be a mystery, as he said he won’t be able to properly train until July, pushing him back to late in 2012 for an Octagon return.

PHOTO CREDIT – UFC

St-Pierre posted on his Twitter account that he has been cleared to do light gymnastics work back in Montreal alongside one of his coaches.

“Great to be back in Montreal and start training again with my gymnastics coach Pat Beauchamp,” St. Pierre posted. In a short video on his official YouTube page “Rush” also explained he is very limited in what he is allowed to do.

In the meantime St. Pierre will have to sit by as the UFC crowns an interim welterweight champion this weekend at UFC 143 with Nick Diaz and Carlos Condit squaring off for the honor. While St. Pierre is hopeful to be back early this summer, it is likely that the winner of Diaz-Condit will make at least one title defense before GSP is cleared to fight again.

Check out his YouTube video below:

St. Pierre, who was scheduled to meet Nick Diaz on February 4 to defend his title, underwent knee surgery roughly five weeks ago after tearing his ACL while preparing for Diaz.

The injury, which has been the most severe of the 30-year old’s career, was kind of a Catch-22 situation as the Canadian was putting more pressure on his right left after injuring his left in training for a bout with Carlos Condit late in 2011. Now, Diaz and Condit will meet for the interim UFC welterweight title with the winner likely facing off with GSP later in the year after an initial defense of the belt.

“Hard training will be in July, and I am looking to fight again, for the timing to be back, in November,” said St. Pierre while serving as a recent guest on Inside MMA . “Late October, early November would be good.”

“Rush” mentioned that he didn’t take enough time to rehab himself from the first injury, adding, “I tried to come back too fast and I was compensating with my other leg. That’s how I hurt myself.”

As for the upcoming Diaz-Condit bout that will crown a champion in his place, St. Pierre started out neutral before offering up his personal preference, saying, “I just hope the best man will win. But if the best man is Nick Diaz, I will appreciate it more, because it will be a better build up for a fight.”

When St. Pierre returns it will have been around 18 months since he last set foot in the Octagon, a concern for many who felt he would be back by late summer after news of his knee injury first broke.

PHOTO CREDIT – UFC

Fortunately their exchanges and work in general was documented, something the fans can now check out as part of Belfort’s Road to UFC 142 series.

“GSP, we just try to help each other and we’re great friends,” explains Belfort of St. Pierre’s presence. “He’s a great champion and my guys like him. Good behavior, good guy, so we’re gonna help each other. That’s the key to get better. Training with the champions. It’s an honor to train with him.”

Belfort-Johnson’s bout will unfold next weekend in Rio de Janeiro as part of a UFC 142 card headlined by featherweight title-holder Jose Aldo putting his belt up for grabs against undefeated grappler Chad Mendes.

Check out the GSP-Belfort video below:

PHOTO CREDIT – UFC/VITORBELFORT

Firas Zahabi

Zahabi, along with founder Conrad Pla and Bruno Hernandez, currently boast five champions who put in time at their gym including UFC title-holders Jon Jones and Georges St. Pierre.

St. Pierre, the UFC welterweight champion, is rehabbing his way back from a torn knee. In the meantime, Carlos Condit and Nick Diaz will meet in early 2012 to crown an interim titleholder, while preparing to meet GSP down the road.

“GSP is recovering very well, although it’s only a little over a week since the surgery,” said Zahabi, in a recent interview with MMAFightCorner. “The doctor said the surgery couldn’t have gone any better. Georges will start rehab at The Sports Science Lab, has been in contact with me regularly, and is motivated to start rehabilitation. Everyone is very confident on a full recovery and we are all looking forward to the next training. After rehab its back to MMA training and everyone can’t wait for that.”

Zahabi also revealed he and St. Pierre actually started out as training partners, saying, “I was amateur champion at the time and GSP was on his way to becoming a pro, a big prospect. Georges walked into TriStar and we started training together. We got along very quickly and become very close.”

PHOTO CREDIT – TWITTER

“My surgery (ACL patellar tendon autograft) was huge success! Ligament very strong. Thanks for support,” wrote St. Pierre via Twitter.

GSP tore his ACL while training for a February 4 title-defense against Nick Diaz, then replaced as a result by Carlos Condit with an interim belt being added into the picture. Assuming his rehabilitation goes as planned St. Pierre is expected to be back in action at some point in 2012 between mid-summer and early fall.

The 30-year old St. Pierre will no doubt be itching to get back in the Octagon as soon as possible having already been sidelined since April while waiting for an October bout that ultimately fell apart due to a smaller injury to his other knee. “Rush” holds an overall record of 22-2 including wins in his last nine fights and is considered to be one of the top pound-for-pound fighters in MMA.

PHOTO CREDIT – UFC

The unfortunate news was revealed earlier today by UFC President Dana White through his Twitter account. As a result Diaz will now face Carlos Condit on the same card – UFC 143 – with an interim belt at stake.

Condit was already scheduled to fight at the same event with Josh Koscheck as an opponent. He also saw Diaz slide into the contendership slot he’d already been promised after UFC 137, a fact likely adding a bit of incentive to shine against the controversial Californian when they meet inside the Octagon. Condit holds an overall record of 27-5 with twenty-six stoppages and is on a four-fight winning streak including victories over Dong Hyun Kim, Dan Hardy, Rory MacDonald, and Jake Ellenberger.

Diaz, a former Strikeforce champion, is coming off his finest performance to date when he dismantled BJ Penn in late October. The mean-mugged 28-year old hasn’t lost since 2007, picking up eleven straight wins in the period since.

No word has surfaced on what will be done with Koscheck.

PHOTO CREDIT – UFC

However, to hear GSP tell his side of the story, it looks like Diaz’s challenge didn’t get under his skin at all and that he actually preferred to fight the former Strikeforce star all along.

“I’m very happy to fight him,” St. Pierre stated in an interview with QMI. “It’s always been the fight I’ve wanted to have. They only thing is he did not show up at the press conference…so the fight got cancelled – not because of me, but because of him and what he had done. But me, I wanted to fight him. He wanted to have a title fight and he got it. (Talking trash) the best way to do it and it’s not personal.”

Drawing criticism from his opponents whether directed at him as a person or fighter is nothing new to “Rush” who dealt with similar smack during the build for bouts against Matt Serra, Josh Koscheck, and a handful of other competitors the 22-2 St. Pierre went on to successfully defeat inside the Octagon.

“I’ve seen it all from everyone before. If they’re trying to get into my head and make me fight a bad fight, it’s just mind games and it doesn’t work,” St. Pierre explained before adding in that much of what people say to him gets lost in translation. “I don’t even understand (or) speak English very well. I don’t understand most of the things that (Diaz) says when he trash-talks. I don’t really care.”

In fact, St. Pierre says he has a far more worthwhile goal to direct his attention to rather than buy into Diaz’s hate.

“I’m just going to focus on hurting him,” the 30-year old concluded. Given the fact GSP’s workout program constantly keeps him in tremendous shape, as well as the notion the French-Canadian champ seems to perform at an ever higher level when motivated by his opponent’s behavior, it seems Diaz may want to quit while he’s ahead and work on training rather than trying to fire St. Pierre up.

PHOTO CREDIT – UFC

At UFC 137, Diaz dominated Penn, winning a clear Unanimous Decision and retiring the Hawaiian legend. Following his victory, Diaz called out St. Pierre saying that the UFC welterweight king was “scared to fight him” and that claimed that he was faking an injury.

The comments upset St. Pierre and had him begging to fight Diaz. UFC president Dana White, who was adamant that Condit would get the next title shot no matter what happened at UFC 137, granted GSP’s request. Condit has agreed to step aside for Diaz, although his manager Malki Kawa states, “St. Pierre chose to fight Nick instead of Carlos.”

While no date has been announced for St. Pierre vs. Diaz, UFC is hoping to have the fight headline their Super Bowl weekend event.

*PHOTO CREDIT – UFC*

“I’m not going to lie, I cried yesterday,” the 30-year old Canadian revealed in a conversation with SportsNet. “I had a ton of pressure falling off my shoulders, because for the last few days I was in the mindset that I was nervous for the fight. I was excited for the fight but I was also nervous to know if I was going to be able to fight. Now all the pressure is off, I feel much better. I’m going to do some rehab, maybe take a vacation because I went through a lot. It’s not only the fight, it’s all the training camp, I went through a lot of stuff. I need to reset the whole thing again and I’ll be ready for the next one.”

In terms of when exactly the “next one” will be, GSP pointed to the possibility of fighting on February 4 at the UFC’s annual Super Bowl Weekend extravaganza.

“I want to do (the recovery) well. I don’t want to do it too fast, because (this time) I had an injury and I tried to train on it and maybe made it a little bit worse. I need a good four weeks to do my (physiotherapy) and do it right,” St. Pierre explained.

Though still too far out to predict with any accuracy, presumably Condit would still serve as St. Pierre’s opponent after being told by the UFC he was still next in line for a crack at the championship.

PHOTO CREDIT – UFC

UFC president Dana White Tweeted the bad news moment after he landed in New York to promote the upcoming UFC on FOX event.

The co-main event between BJ Penn and Nick Diaz will now headline the show while Condit has been pulled from the event and will face St. Pierre at a later date. White expects his 170 lb champion to be ready in a couple of months although he concedes that it’s, “too early to tell.” The new main event between Penn and Diaz will still be a three round fight and have title implications.

UFC 137 is scheduled to take place on October 29 from the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.