Dana White: UFC did not try to keep Georges St-Pierre out of UFC 167 presser

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- In the aftermath of Georges St-Pierre's ground-shaking press conference on Friday announcing he was relinquishing his welterweight title, reports surfaced that St-Pierre claimed the UFC tried to prevent him from entering last month's UFC 167 post-fight news conference.

A battered and bruised St-Pierre, who was thought to have gone off to a local hospital after his controversial split-decision win over Johny Hendricks at UFC 167, showed up midway through the press conference, right after UFC president Dana White criticized his plan to take a leave of abscene.

At Saturday night's UFC on FOX 9 post-fight news conference at Sleep Train Arena, though, White adamantly denied the company was trying to keep him from coming to the podium.

"For those of you that were there that night," White said, "I came out and said Georges St-Pierre was at the hospital. My PR people told me he had gone to the hospital in an ambulance."

According to White, the confusion came when the doctors on hand at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas told him he needed to get to the hospital.

"When he was trying to go to the press conference, the doctors were telling him no, he had to go to the hospital," White said. "He was saying no, he wanted to go to the press conference."

Ultimately, White pinned the confusion on a bad translation, as the "UFC kept GSP out of the press conference" stories originated in French-language media.

"We don't tell guys no, you can't go to the press conference. We never told guys you can't go, especially GSP. You're not going to tell Georges St-Pierre after a title fight that you can't go to the press conference. I just want to clear that stupidity up. There's always some conspiracy theory. ... A little bit was lost in translation there when Georges was telling that story."