How Georges St-Pierre Spent His First $1M in the UFC | My First Million | GQ Sports

In my

first

fight I got paid eleven hundred dollars because my opponent didn't make weight, otherwise I probably would have made even less because I got 30 from his purse. This is Jean Saint-Pierre and this is how I spend and save my money.

first

million

dollars i was born in montreal canada i grew up in saints dog the south coast where there are a lot of farms not much happens at first i got into karate because i was bullied at school i didn't know what i wanted to be until i saw the first ufc on tv when I was a teenager I was in school but I studied more because it was the right thing to do and because my parents pressured me we didn't have much money when I grew up we weren't poor either because like every day I had money for school but we weren't rich I had to work as security in a hip-hop club as a garbage dump I always find time to train myself by working and studying At the same time, my number one priority, my number one goal is to become a champion and the ultimate fighting championship.

I fought several times at local shows. He was undefeated at the time. My first big fight on the local scene. I was fighting a guy named Pete Spratt. a ufc veteran, he probably thought i was just coming to collect a paycheck and beat a young guy, i beat him up and that's when the door opened, the ufc drafted me, but at that time I wasn't making enough money, things were very tight. For me, I couldn't afford to lose a fight because if I had lost a fight I would have been in debt. I remember my first fight in the UFC, I won three thousand to show plus three thousand to win and then I had a second fight.

I won four thousand to show plus 4,000 to win, then I won that fight by knockout, that fight gave me the opportunity to go for the title right away. I had the opportunity to pursue my dream. I was studying and working too. I had a crazy schedule, I sat down with my parents, I told them, I told them listen, if things don't go well, I can always go back to school, but for the next session I would like to focus just on training because I have a chance for the qualification. And it's a great opportunity and they agreed that it was when I started training full time that I lost that fight, but it made me a much better fighter because I learned a lot from that experience and bounced back immediately after I finally got another one. title shot and I beat Matt Hughes, so I didn't have to go back to school, you know, go back to my whole life, it was after my fight with John Fitch, I had to renew my contract, but I was champion and I was leaving quite.

Well, if I finished my contract, I had great offers waiting for me, so the UFC decided to renew my contract and that's when I made my first

million

. I started working with a financial advisor right away because I am a Canadian citizen, tax reporting is very complicated, many athletes make the mistake of not paying their taxes, so I made sure my structure was solid and everything was fine. I think many athletes immediately start investing in luxury cars, things like those jewelry, but I didn't do that, if I make money, I need to become more competent to improve.

I travel the world to acquire more knowledge and improve. We talked about how I saved my money. Now let's talk about how I spend it. The first thing I did was pay off all my parents' debt because my parents are the ones who supported me from the beginning, you know, they took care of me when I was a baby, so that was the first thing I did and when my mom called me crying with my dad on the line and says that's your money, we don't need your help, it was like one of the most beautiful days, one of the best of my life, my dad was my first martial arts teacher, but he was too busy because he worked Like maybe. six sixty hours a week for 30 years, you know, he never stopped, he loved it, so he put me in a karate school paying my parents 50,000.

The second thing is I bought two cars for my parents, a Japanese car at Toyota, they didn't. I really want to have something from me, but I forced them to have their car broken all the time and I bought them a new car and I want them to have a more luxurious car, but they didn't really want it, as they say, uh, a good car. Japanese will be something that will last a long time, like at that time, maybe it was twenty, maybe forty thousand, I would say forty forty thousand dollars for my current cars. I bought a car and also an exterior Nissan.

My vehicle was pretty bad, so I needed it. something for sure and I always love SUVs because in Montreal there are a lot of snow storms. I also felt that in an SUV you are usually higher up so it is safer. My biggest fear is having a car accident and not being able to do what I love to do in my life nissan xterra 20 000. One of my sisters wanted to have her master's degree to take care of our family and be able to free us to pursue our dream and I gave her money all that every few months. a a you know to keep rolling you know like now she's still doing what she's doing because she has kids, she's working and she's still doing it 10,000 for my sister to get her master's degree to tell you the truth, like it was very boring. the program if I'm telling you the truth like my parents mortgaged my parents' cars my sisters this is nothing else I did on short notice oh bang you know how I spread it you know another fifty thousand dollars for my family's gift expenses to help they chase their dreams, so this thirty thousand dollars is all the friends that I helped and who told me they would pay me back, but they never did, so I help a lot of people and I would say it was about thirty thousand dollars the ones I lost.

Okay, I helped them out of a bad situation, but the thing is, when you start making a lot of money, a lot of people come to you and everyone has problems. The easiest way to get out of financial problems is to borrow money from someone. You know, take it and never give it back if you give money to someone, make sure you can afford to lose it. I

spent

a lot of money traveling around the world to learn new fighting skills. I went to Thailand to learn Muay Thai. I went to Brazil to improve in jiu jitsu in new york to improve in jiu jitsu I also went to Los Angeles to trade and train with Freddie Roach a famous boxing coach to improve my boxing skills France to work on my striking skills also because I knew I couldn't stay here in Montreal to grow and become a better fighter.

I needed to learn experience from others and when I say travel, I mean training classes, the food plane, the hotels, that's a lot, yes, now 200 000 is missing. traveling to train two hundred thousand dollars is difficult to become a champion, but it is even harder to stay champion because you become the target, so when I made my first million dollars, I

spent

a lot of money and invested in myself, you know? Getting better, I bought a jacuzzi and a mugging bath so I could change. I think it helped my body recover better when I have very intense training sessions.

I spent around 15-20k on it and it was a good investment. I have to say the last thing I bought with my first million was a condo for 500k, but I needed to renovate it and it cost me about 100k condo plus the 600k renovation, so I really like dinosaur fossils. I love paleontology. and I bought it for I would say twenty thousand dollars megaliths on foot mossosaurs jaw tyrannosaurus rex all kinds of different animals I lived a long time ago a long time ago at that time I was studying I didn't know what I wanted to do but now I know that if I wasn't a fighter I would be a paleontologist and I would probably be in the field digging and I mean paniologi.

I love it because you learn about the past and if you learn about the past you can understand the present. better and predict future fairs my head trainer gave me another megalodon tooth, a big one, it was my favorite fossil fossil that I have because it represents the alpha predator, the goat predator of all time, that tooth that I have at one time I I was fixing my sound system it made a lot of noise and vibrated and my tooth felt on the ground and broke but I still have it today I can't glue it it breaks into pieces dinosaur fossil 20k when you start making money in combat

sports

you have to have Keep in mind that it's very hard to get to the top but it's very easy to get back down, make sure you invest in yourself because if you don't improve the game will catch up with you so make sure you invest. on yourself, gain new knowledge, make sure you get treatment to recover better, so invest this in yourself if I had gone back in time and told the kid that one day I will become a world champion and mixed martial arts champion.

I think I will believe it because I always knew I had all the tools, I worked very hard and I was also very lucky because I had the opportunity to meet incredible mentors and the stars were very aligned for me when a door opened for me. I was entering if the doors were all closed I was entering to create my own opportunity I grew up in Saint Quebec Canada and the mayor of the city called me and told me that next summer there will be the inauguration of a statue of me in fighting legs that they will put on middle of the city center so it is a great honor for me as rocky balboa but in the small town of satya's door that's how it will be thank you it's a pleasure thank you for having me