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We Asked Some UFC Fighters About GSP's Love of Dinosaurs

With The Boneyard With Georges St-Pierre fresh on our minds, we asked Rory MacDonald, Patrick Cote, and Stephen Thompson if their friend and colleague had ever tried to talk to them about dinosaurs.
Photo via History Channel

Two days before The Boneyard With Georges St-Pierre, the new two-part dinosaur series hosted by the once (and future?) UFC Welterweight king premiered on the History Channel in Canada, and mere hours before RDS broke the latest news on his long-rumored return and current negotiation issues with the UFC, we had a chance to sit down with three of his UFC colleagues.

Rory MacDonald, Patrick Cote, and Stephen Thompson were all in Toronto to promote the forthcoming UFC Fight Night on June 18 in at The Arena at TD Place in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Given that all three fighters are friendly with GSP and have worked with him in some capacity in the past or present, and given that we at Fightland love St-Pierre's interest in dinosaurs almost as much as he loves dinosaurs, we decided to ask all three men about their associate's prehistoric predilection. GSP once told ESPN that "Most of my friends are nerds like me. That's why I have a hard time finding a girlfriend. I need someone to talk science with," so does he want to talk paleontology with his fight friends, too? When our serious questions were out of the way (more on that later) we asked them.

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Recent GSP tennis opponent and Tristar training partner, Rory "The Red King" MacDonald, who is facing Stephen Thompson in the main event at UFC Ottawa, said that the prehistoric creatures have come up in their talks together. "All the time, yeah. He's mentioned it many times. He likes that stuff."

Although he's polite on the topic, it's also pretty clear that he's not big on reciprocating those conversations. "Yeah. I don't get into that. At all," he laughs.

Longtime friend Patrick Cote, who is squaring off against Donald Cerrone in a welterweight bout on the card, had heard about the new show. "I saw the commercial and I knew it before that Georges was obsessed by dinosaurs. We didn't chat about it, because I don't know anything about dinosaurs, but I knew it and I'm not surprised, and I'm looking forward to [seeing The Boneyard]. I'm curious about how he's going to handle that."

Although Cote is far from an expert or enthusiast, he says that he doesn't mind when the topic of dinosaurs comes up between them. "It doesn't matter. Talking with Georges is always fun."

Stephen "Wonderboy" Thompson, who has trained at Tristar with GSP and most recently picked his former partner's brain before he faced (and subsequently knocked out) Johny Hendricks at UFC Fight Night 82 this past February, says that particular topic has never come up between them. "He has not talked to me about dinosaurs, no."

Thompson had not yet heard of the show, but he was incredibly enthusiastic about the concept. "I had no idea. A dinosaur show. What?! I definitely have to check this out," he said before waxing philosophical on GSP's future in the cage. "Good for Georges. That's so sweet! Man, he's doing everything. Movies. Commercials…. Which would make it kind of weird why he would be fighting again, because you know there's talk of him fighting in the UFC. He's doing very well for himself outside of the UFC, so it's very weird why he would be going back. But anyway, it is what it is."