Georges St. Pierre: A Sherdog Retrospective

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Ed Carbajal: Georges St. Pierre versus Matt Hughes was one of the more athletically competitive rivalries in mixed martial arts, and captivated me from the first time they fought at UFC 50. St. Pierre admitted Hughes was one of the fighters he looked up to, but was closing in on him quickly as he came through the welterweight ranks. However, it was his losing the title to Matt Serra and having to fight his way through Hughes again to regain his true title that would be one of my favorite memories of St Pierre’s career.

It is not the fight itself that stands out to me the most, but how St. Pierre addressed the interim title that sticks with me. First, a little background to how an interim title came to be in the timeline of St. Pierre.

It was only his third fight in the UFC the first time St. Pierre faced Matt Hughes for the vacant welterweight title at UFC 50. Fighting someone he looked up to may have played a part in his loss in that fight, but the armbar finish from Hughes lit a fire under St. Pierre that would have him win his next five fights to face Hughes again for the title that was on the line in their first fight.

Five fights and two years later, St. Pierre had closed the holes in his game that gave Hughes the upper hand in their first fight. St. Pierre would beat Hughes by way of TKO at UFC 65 to claim the UFC welterweight title for the first time.

St. Pierre’s next fight would be against Matt Serra, who would humble the young champ by catching him with a punch that would wobble him and lead him to his second and last loss in the UFC. Once again, St. Pierre had to work his way back to the title.

A dominant victory over Josh Koscheck would keep St. Pierre ready to face the next challenge but an injured Matt Serra would create the interim title situation that overwhelms the UFC today. St. Pierre and Matt Hughes were 1-1 against each other and fighting for an interim title at UFC 79 would put the winner in a title unification fight against Serra.

UFC 79 was when events were still given names with their numbers and this one was appropriately titled “Nemesis” when you look at the history St. Pierre and Hughes had, and how St. Pierre finished Hughes in the event. St. Pierre dominated Hughes throughout the two rounds the fight lasted until he avenged his armbar loss to Hughes by submitting him with an armbar of his own.

While St. Pierre had won the interim title, during his post-fight interview he removed the belt from his waist and said, “It doesn’t mean nothing to me,” and added, “the real champion is Matt Serra and until I get my belt back, I’m not going to consider myself champion.” He would go on to face Serra and regain the title and defend it, right up until he walked away from the sport and the welterweight division in 2013.

Nowadays, if fighters are lucky enough to win an interim title it barely guarantees them the next shot at the champion in the UFC, but when St. Pierre did it he set the tone of how titles are to be pursued and defended. They certainly don’t make them like him anymore but the landscape of the sport has changed and it is probably a good time for him to walk away from MMA.

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Todd Martin: When Georges St. Pierre made his UFC debut at UFC 46, his fight was immediately followed by Lee Murray coming out in a prison outfit and Hannibal Lecter mask in his only UFC fight before masterminding the largest cash robbery in the history of Great Britain. Frank Mir and Wes Sims would rematch a bout where Sims was disqualified for flagrantly and repeatedly stomping Mir’s head.

The last UFC card had featured the corners of Wesley Correira and Tank Abbott nearly getting into a brawl after the fight was over, and Phil Baroni would repeatedly punch referee Larry Landless because he didn’t like the stoppage of his fight. The day after UFC 46 in Japan, Pride would debut a fighter with Neo-Nazi tattoos while Dos Caras Jr. (later known as Alberto Del Rio) would compete wearing a mask against Kazuhiro Nakamura.

MMA was at the time not only an outlaw sport but a sport of outlaws. The well-spoken, good natured and highly gifted natural athlete St. Pierre represented a shift towards a different identity. As more money flowed into the sport, more fighters would resemble St. Pierre in approach and disposition. GSP didn’t fight during UFC’s ESPN era but he fits comfortably into that company’s identity in a way so many of his predecessors did not.

St. Pierre in my view has the best claim of any MMA fighter to the title of GOAT. That’s due to the level of competition he fought against while sustaining no unavenged defeats. However, it was the way he carried himself that remains the first thing I think of when St. Pierre comes up: accommodating, kind and principled. He wasn’t principally responsible for the elevation of MMA as a sport but he mirrored that rise more than anyone else.

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Eric Stinton: You can tell a lot about someone by looking at their rivals. When I heard about Georges St. Pierre’s retirement, that’s exactly what I did: I binge-watched old Matt Hughes, Nick Diaz and B.J. Penn fights. Each of them -- St. Pierre and his three primary rivals -- were great fighters in their own right, though St. Pierre is clearly in a different dimension of accomplishment. More illuminating than the career contrasts, however, are the personality differences.

Hughes was a proud asshole; St. Pierre was classy to a fault. Diaz didn't give any f-cks; St. Pierre gave all of them. Penn was a naturally gifted slacker; St. Pierre was an eminent professional. Each man made his mark on the sport, but St. Pierre did more than that. He molded MMA into what it is now.

The UFC followed St. Pierre's lead more than anyone else in the modern era. Ten years and a month ago, St. Pierre headlined the first true champion vs. champion superfight at UFC 94. Now, they are an annual occurrence. St. Pierre appeared in major television commercials and rocked name-brand sponsors well before the UFC inked deals with Reebok or ESPN. He showed the rest of the sport how to train and how to win fights. And the most aggressive he ever got on the microphone was to say that he wasn't impressed with Hughes' performance.

I feel bad for St. Pierre's rivals. All three were ambitious and talented, but their skills and drive were ultimately dwarfed by GSP’s patient excellence. Fighting at the same time as him must have been like playing in the NBA in the 90s; how many great players would have won championships if Michael Jordan simply didn't exist? How many more welterweight champions would there have been had St. Pierre become a paleontologist?

To call St. Pierre the greatest fighter ever is pretty uncontroversial at this point. The totality of his career achievement can only be matched by Jon Jones, but Rush never had a single controversy, the goofy "greasegate" scandal notwithstanding. Unlike other all-time greats, though, St. Pierre's greatest attributes were how he conducted himself outside of the cage. He squeezed more out of the UFC than just about anyone else, and he did it entirely on his terms. He raised expectations for the sport by raising expectations for himself. He became the cornerstone of professionalism and greatness that fans could point to whenever naysayers scoffed at our beloved barbarism. He was as undeniable in elevating the status of MMA as he was unstoppable competing in it.

St. Pierre wasn't the most significant crossover cultural icon or the biggest blockbuster draw, but he was more successful than anyone else in terms of making the sport respectable. Mixed martial arts is better off because of him. There aren't many other fighters you can say that about.

Continue Reading » Is it fair to wish he'd finished more fights as champ?