George St. Pierre at ESPN Magazine

Welcome to Young Hollywood. Je suis Nikki Novak and this is Je suis George St. Pierre. See, it sounds better when you say it than when I say it.

No, no, you have uh, you speak very well.

We're speaking French because of course you're from French Canada.

Yes, I'm from uh from Quebec.

And one of the biggest UFC fighters in the world, representing Canada.

I'm trying. I'm trying hard. See, people don't realize we have to be tough growing up in Canada because it's so cold. Yeah, and there's nothing much to do, you know? So, I learn how to uh, I learn how to to fight.

Did you fight with girls ever or only with boys?

Oh no, it's uh, girl fighting girls, that's the worst thing, you know? And girls have bad temper. Sometimes it's worse than the the Second World War. You don't want to be in trouble with a woman.

But you know, French Canada and English Canada, sometimes we don't get along so well.

That's true. But you know, it's uh, we always have love for each other, so it's okay.

It's true. We fight but then we make up, right?

Exactly.

When did you start fighting, like in being really serious about it, at what age?

I I started when I was seven years old and uh my first professional bout was when I was 19 years old. So I used to compete a lot in full contact uh competition before I started fighting professionally.

And what inspired you to start? It's funny, it's uh You seem really sweet. You seem like you're not combative by nature.

Yeah, but I I'm more an intellectual guy, you know? But uh what inspired me is uh this guy called uh Hoyce Gracie. And I remember the first UFC, I I saw him, he was very small, 170 lbs and he was beating guy of 250 lbs and he beat them not because he was stronger or faster or more athletic. He beat them because he was smarter and more clever. He had the technique and uh because of that, he had a weapon that nobody else has. So he was able to to to win.

Do you have a secret like when you go into combat?

There's one thing, there is a reason I think that the champion is champion is because not only because of athletic attribute because at the highest level, everybody is very athletic. But what makes the difference, for example, in fighting sport, fighting, people take it here, fighting is not here. Fighting is here. It's an art. It's a there is protocol to follow in fighting. That same protocol you can use, for example, when you go negotiate a deal in business, you can apply that to to fighting as well.