- My first fight ever
I got paid $1,100
because my opponent did not make the weight.
Otherwise I would have probably made even less
because I got 30% of his purse.
This is Georges St-Pierre,
and this is how I spent and saved my first million dollar.
[hip hop music plays]
I'm born in Montreal, Canada.
I grew up in Saint-Isidore,
the South shore and where there is a lot of farms,
not a lot of things going on.
I got into karate at first because I was bullied at school.
I didn't know what I wanted to become
until I saw the first UFC on TV when I was a teenager.
I was at school, but I was studying more
because it was the right thing to do,
and because my parent pushed me.
We didn't have a lot of money when I grew up.
We were not poor either because I eat every day,
I had money for school,
but we were not wealthy.
I had to work as security at a hip hop nightclub,
as a garbageman,
I always find time to train, working, and studying
in the same time.
My number one priority,
my number one goal is to become champion
in Ultimate Fighting Championship.
I fought a few time in local shows.
I 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 taught that he was just coming in
to collect a paycheck and beat a young kid.
I beat him,
and that's when the door opened,
the UFC recruit me.
But at that time, I was not making enough money.
Things were so tight to me
that I couldn't afford to lose a fight
because if I would have lose a fight,
I would have been in debt.
I remember my first fight in UFC.
I made 3,000 to show,
plus 3,000 to win.
Then I had a second fight,
I made 4,000 to show,
plus 4,000 to win.
Then I won that fight by knockout.
That fight gave me a chance to go for the title right away,
I had a chance to pursue my dream.
I was studying,
and I was working as well.
I had like a crazy schedule.
I sat down with my parent and I told them,
I said, "Listen, if things doesn't go well,
I can always come back to school,
but for the next session,
I would like to just focus on training
because I have a title shot
and it's a big opportunity."
And they agreed.
That's when I started to train full-time.
I lost that fight,
but it made me a much better fighter
because I've learned a lot from that experience,
and I rebound immediately after.
I finally get myself another title shot,
and I beat Matt Hughes.
So I didn't have to go back to school,
you know, go back to my old life.
It was after my fight with Jon Fitch,
I had to renew my contract,
but I was champion,
and I was doing pretty well.
So if I finished my contract,
I had big offers waiting for me,
so the UFC decided to renew my contract,
and that's when I made my first million.
[mellow hip hop plays]
I start working with financial advisor right away.
First, because I'm a Canadian citizen,
the tax report is very complicated.
A lot of athlete, they make the mistake,
they don't pay their taxes.
So I made sure my structure was solid and all good.
So a lot of athlete,
I think they start right away to invest on
luxury cars, stuff like that, jewelry.
But I didn't do that.
If I make money,
I need to make myself more competent,
to become better.
I traveled the world
in order to gain more knowledge,
then become better.
We talked about how I saved my money,
now let's talk about how I spend it.
[hip hop plays]
The first thing I did is,
to clear all my parent debt.
Because my parent are the ones that support me
since the beginning, you know?
They took care of me as a baby,
so that was the first thing I did.
And when my mom called me
crying with my dad on the line and say,
"That's your money, we don't need your help!"
It was like one of the most beautiful,
one of the best day of my life.
My dad was my first martial art teacher,
but he was too busy because he worked
like maybe 60 hours a week for 30 years,
you know, like he never stopped.
He loved it.
So he put me in a karate school.
Paying my parents debt, 50,000.
Second thing that I bought,
two cars for my parent.
Japanese car, Toyota.
They didn't really want to have something from me,
but I forced them.
Their car was broke all the time,
so I bought them a new car.
And I want them to have a more luxury car,
but they really didn't want it.
Like they say, "A good Japanese car
will be something that that will last for long."
And like at that time it was maybe 20, maybe 40,000,
I would say 40.
$40,000 for my parent cars.
I bought myself a car as well.
Nissan Xterra.
My vehicle was pretty bad,
so I needed something safe,
and I always love SUV
because in Montreal there's a lot of snow storm.
I also felt that in a SUV you're normally higher,
so it's safer.
My biggest fear is to get into a car crash,
and not being able to do what I love to do in my life.
Nissan Xterra, $20,000.
One of my sister, she wanted to have her master degree.
To take care of her family,
and be able to free herself to pursue her dream.
And I gave her money like every few month
to, you know, to keep rolling, you know?
Like now, she's still doing it.
Like she's doing it because she has kids,
she's working and she's still doing it,
$10,000 for my sister to get her master degree.
To tell you the truth,
like it would be very boring,
the show, if I tell you the truth,
like my parent mortgage, my parent cars,
my sisters, this.
There is nothing else that I did on a short notice,
like bang, you know?
Like I spread it, you know?
Another $50,000 for my family's gifts, expenses,
to help them pursuing their dreams.
So this $30,000 is all the friends that I helped
who told me that they would pay me back,
but they never did.
So I help a lot of people,
and I would say it's about $30,000 that I lost.
It was okay.
I helped them get out of bad situation,
but the thing is when you start making a lot of money,
you get a lot of people coming at you,
and everybody has problems.
The easy way to get out of financial problem
is to borrow money from someone you know,
take it,
and never give it back.
If you lend 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 muay Thai.
I went to Brazil to get better at jiu-jitsu
And New York to get better in jiu-jitsu as well.
I went to Los Angeles, trained with Freddie Roach,
a famous boxing coach,
to get better boxing skills.
France, to work on my striking skills as well.
Because I knew I couldn't stay in Montreal, here,
in order to grow and become a better fighter.
I needed to learn expertise from others.
And when I say traveling,
I'm talking about training, classes, the food,
airplane, the hotels,
that's a lot, yeah.
200,000, ow.
Traveling for training, $200,000.
It's hard to become champion,
but it's even harder to stay champion
because you become the target.
So that's why when I made my first million dollar
I spent a lot of money,
and I invested on myself, you know?
In order to get better.
I bought myself a jacuzzi and a ice bath,
so I can switch.
I believe it help my body to recuperate better
when I have very hardcore training sessions.
I spent about I would say, 15 to $20,000 on that.
And it was a good investment, I have to say.
The last thing that I bought with my first million,
it was a condo.
$500,000.
But I needed to do renovation in it.
And it cost me about 100K.
Condo plus renovation, $600,000.
So I'm really into dinosaur fossil.
I love paleontology.
And I bought for, I would say $20,000,
Megalodon tooth,
Mosasaurus jaw,
Tyrannosaurus Rex,
all kinds of different animals
that used to live 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 would not be a fighter,
I would be a paleontologist,
and I would probably be on the field digging,
and I mean...
Paleontology, I love it because you learn about the past,
and if you learn about the past
you can understand the present better,
and predict the future.
Firas, my head coach, gave me another Megalodon tooth,
a big one.
It was my favorite fossil that I have
because it represent the alpha predator,
the GOAT predator of all time.
That tooth that I have,
at one point I was fixing my sound system,
it make a lot of noise and it vibrate,
and my tooth fell on the floor and broke,
but I still have it today.
I can't glue it, it shatters in pieces.
Dinosaur fossil, $20K
When you start making money in combat sport,
you have to keep in mind that
it's very hard to reach the top,
but it's very easy to go back down.
Make sure to invest on yourself,
because if you don't get better,
the game will catch up to you.
So you need to make sure that you invest on yourself,
get new knowledge,
make sure you have treatment
to in order to recuperate better.
So invest this thing on yourself.
If I would have go back in time
and tell the kid that I was,
that one day I will become world champion
in mixed martial art,
I think I will believe
because I always knew that I had all the tools.
I worked very hard.
And also I was very lucky
because I had the chance to meet incredible mentors,
and the stars were all aligned for me.
When a door opened to me, I was getting in.
If the door were all closed,
I was breaking in it
to create my own opportunity.
I grew up in Saint-Isidore, Quebec, Canada,
and the mayor of the city call me
and says that this coming summer
will be the inauguration of a statue of me in fighting pose,
that they will put in the middle of the center of the city.
So it's a great honor for me.
Like Rocky Balboa,
but in the small town of Saint-Isidore.
[Georges laughs]
That's what it will be like.
Thank you.
It's a pleasure.
Thank you for having me.