St-Pierre made his long-awaited return to the Octagon last November in the main event of UFC 217, the promotion’s third card in New York City.
The Canadian’s first fight in over four years saw him challenge Michael Bisping for the middleweight title, a belt many thought he would never compete for.
St-Pierre’s pursuit of his fourth UFC title was a successful one as he scored a third-round submission victory over ‘The Count’.
Despite not being badly hurt by Bisping, the fight was arguably the hardest of St-Pierre’s career as he was struggling with a bout of colitis, which forced him to relinquish the middleweight title 33 days after claiming it.
According to Danaher, St-Pierre was dealing with the ailment throughout the buildup to UFC 217 and it forced him to miss two weeks of training.
“It threw a monkey wrench during the camp, Danaher said during an appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience Podcast. “I could tell you some stories about that.
“As good as the four years (of training) was, the camp, I can say this now as its over, was a disaster. It was probably the worst camp I was ever involved in.
“I was coaching, of course, the squad for ADCC. ADCC I believe was around six weeks before Georges’ fight.
“So I was in Finland and I was communicating with Georges and he’s like, ‘Feeling good.’
“The moment I get back I was going to get on a plane from Finland to Montreal and start the camp. Georges rang me up and said, ’I’ve got stomach issues.’ I was like, ‘What do you mean stomach issues? What does that even mean?’
“About two weeks into the camp, the issues got so bad that Georges literally could not (train).
“Now this is a six-week fight camp, it’s a very short camp. Back in the day, we used to do eight to twelve weeks. But Georges thought a shorter would be better. As he’s getting older he wanted a shorter camp.
“The first two weeks were okay, but I was in the aftermath of the Finland expedition. And when I first went up, Georges said, ‘I’ve got to cancel, I can’t train.’ I’m like, ‘The fight is four weeks away.’ And Georges took weeks off.”
St-Pierre’s inactivity in the lead up to UFC 217 forced Danaher to issue an ultimatum to ‘GSP’s’ head coach Firas Zahabi.
“There was a critical moment on a Friday evening where I said to Firas Zahabi, this is the second time I’ve had to say this to Firas Zahabi, the other was the Carlos Condit camp.
“I said, ‘If Georges isn’t training by Monday we are going to have to pull the plug. There’s no way to win.’ We’re talking about a four-year layoff. And this camp is dead in the water.”