A smiling Georges St-Pierre feeling better, thanks well-wishers for their support

TORONTO – Georges St-Pierre was all smiles Monday, in the wake of his controversial decision win over Johny (Bigg Rigg) Hendricks at UFC 167.

The UFC welterweight champion tweeted a picture of himself in his Las Vegas hotel with four friends including his mentor, former fighter Kristof (The French Hurricane) Midoux.

“Good morning from Vegas – Feeling much better now! Merci à tous pour votre support incroyable!!!” St-Pierre tweeted.

The 32-year-old from Montreal is wearing a big grin and dark glasses to conceal facial damage.

St-Pierre (25-2) took a beating in winning a split (48-47, 47-48, 48-47) decision Saturday over Hendricks that drew criticism from Dana White. The UFC president said GSP won only the third round and called for the Nevada governor to investigate the Nevada State Athletic Commission, which oversees the sport.

After the fight, St-Pierre said he needed to take time away from the sport to deal with some personal issues which he did not detail. White later said the problems were not as bad as the fighter thought and that he expected St-Pierre to return to the cage for a rematch with Hendricks in the future.

The commission, meanwhile, released purse information for the show Monday.

St-Pierre received a basic purse of US$400,000 while Hendricks got $50,000, missing out on a matching win bonus.

The UFC awarded both fighters an additional $50,000 as a fight of the night bonus.

The purse information only tells part of the financial story, however, since the UFC does not reveal all of its pay figures. St-Pierre’s paycheque would be the millions given he is the UFC’s largest draw and gets a cut of the lucrative pay-per-view revenue.

Hendricks (15-2) would also have made considerably more than the posted figure.

Fellow Montreal welterweight Rory MacDonald made a basic purse of $50,000 for his decision loss to (Ruthless) Robbie Lawler, who picked up $166,000 including a win bonus of $83,000.

MacDonald missed out on a win bonus of $50,000.

Former light-heavyweight champion Rashad Evans picked up a basic purse of $250,000, including a $125,000 win bonus, for his first-round TKO of Chael Sonnen ($100,000).