Georges St-Pierre was away for four years, and was still able to move up a weight class to beat the champion in Michael Bisping. While his skills obviously still translated very well, the two-division champion says a lot has changed during his time away from the UFC.

“The sport has changed. Now it’s more WWF,” GSP said during an appearance at the New York Stock Exchange. “It’s crazy. It wasn’t like that when I left off four years ago. Now it’s crazy — also, I was fighting a guy who likes to trash talk, which is different. It was just a different environment.

“The fans are crazy. Everybody is more into it. It was fun though, I was enjoying the process.”

St-Pierre didn’t really frame “different” as something negative, but it is true that the sport’s landscape has changed from the time when it was him and Anderson Silva at the top.

In this era seemingly about ‘money fights,’ the loud and controversial Conor McGregor is currently the sport’s biggest star. Interestingly enough, now that he’s back, St-Pierre has repeatedly said that he has reservations calling out the smaller guy.