UFC welterweight contender Tyron Woodley thinks Georges St-Pierre may have gotten a raw deal when he vacated his title and announced an MMA hiatus, but he’s not sure the former champ necessarily left for all the reasons he said.

Most notably, Woodley doesn’t think concerns over performance-enhancing drugs and current drug-testing standards played a significant part in St-Pierre’s decision to walk away.

“I don’t know where that came from,” said Woodley, referring to St-Pierre’s PED/drug-testing comments earlier this month. “I don’t think that’s a reason.”

Instead, Woodley thinks St-Pierre left for the other reasons the French-Canadian vet first mentioned: issues in his personal life that he wants to keep private. St-Pierre mentioned them after a controversial UFC 167 win over Johny Hendricks in November. Woodley, who knocked out Josh Koscheck at the same event, was seated next to St-Pierre during after the November event’s post-fight press conference.

“I think he left for personal reasons,” Woodley said. “Sitting next to him at the press conference, people were digging and asking questions, and he was really making it known he didn’t want to answer. I actually felt bad for him. I’m like, ‘This guy is telling you he’s seeing things in his dreams. He’s having nightmares. He doesn’t want to talk about it.’

“I think the media and (the industry) in general, I think we owe it to him to give him a chance to sit back and relax. Whatever he needs to do, I think we need to let him do that.”

Woodley (12-2 MMA, 2-1 UFC), who next meets Carlos Condit (29-7 MMA, 6-3 UFC) in a likely title eliminator at UFC 171 on March 15, said he’s fought guys he’s sure were on steroids during his own career, though he’s not too concerned about.

Check out the video above to learn why.

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