Georges St-Pierre's Terrifying Encounter with a Silverback Gorilla

Georges St-Pierre, the legendary UFC fighter known for his dominance in the octagon, recently shared a harrowing experience he had with a silverback gorilla during a trip to Rwanda. St-Pierre, who has faced some of the toughest opponents in his career, admitted that this encounter was one he wanted no part of.

Speaking on the Pound 4 Pound podcast, St-Pierre recounted the rules his guide had given him before the trekking experience. He explained that if a silverback gorilla looks at you, you don't look back, you don't eat in front of him, and if he comes toward you, you don't run away. Instead, you get out of the way and make yourself in a submissive pose.

“I have a funny story,” St-Pierre said on the podcast. “I actually got chased by a silverback gorilla. I was in Rwanda, I did gorilla trekking and we had a guide that was with us. He’s with the same family of gorilla every day and he told us the rules.

So if a gorilla looks at you, a silverback, you don’t look at him. You don’t eat in front of him, you don’t take flash photo. And if he comes toward you, don’t run away, just get out of the way and make yourself in a submissive pose, and that’s what happened. He looked at me, he went toward me, and I get out of the way and I put my knees on the floor like this, and I was like, ‘Please, please.’

“My jab is based on a snake,” St-Pierre said. “The snake folds itself in to create a false feeling of security of his prey, so his prey doesn’t know, it thinks it’s safe, but it folds itself and then it launches. It’s like my jab. I fold myself in. [St-Pierre mimes throwing jab.] So I create a false feeling of security to my opponent. It’s an illusion. You think I cannot touch you, but I go ‘ding’ and I touch you.”

Now able to laugh about the experience, St-Pierre encouraged others to go on similar adventures, both for the experience and to support wildlife preservation. Former UFC champions Henry Cejudo and Kamaru Usman joked about joining such a trek, with Cejudo stating he would only consider it if he went with St-Pierre himself.