Sherdog’s Top 10: Greatest Canadian Fighters

1. Georges St. Pierre

In perhaps the least surprising result of any Top 10 list in this series, the legendary St. Pierre, who finished No. 1 on Sherdog's greatest welterweights and second on its list of greatest fighters ever pound-for-pound, takes the gold medal here. Amusingly, he is also the third straight welterweight we've seen on this countdown, establishing it as the division where Canadian fighters have enjoyed their greatest success by far. Despite having no amateur wrestling background, St. Pierre became one of the very best wrestlers in the history of the sport, with perhaps its very best double-leg shot. He mixed this with outstanding jiu-jitsu, top control, relentless and vicious ground-and-pound, and endless cardio to make him a nightmare to grapple with. For the few elite wrestlers who could do so, like Josh Koscheck and Jon Fitch, St. Pierre also had very good stand-up, especially for his time, including a beautiful jab and powerful kicks. “GSP” consistently faced the most difficult opponents imaginable for his era, ones who were often legends themselves and meant to challenge or even expose him, only for the French-Canadian to finish the night having thoroughly dominated and embarrassed them. This began with his very first professional fight in 2002 against Ivan Menjivar, then 4-0 but later a talented UFC bantamweight and featherweight contender as late as 2012. It was an insane opponent to start with, but St. Pierre finished him with punches in the first round. St. Pierre's UFC debut occurred when he was only 5-0 and 22 years old, and he faced a Top 10 welterweight in Karo Parisyan. As a considerable underdog, St. Pierre did what he would throughout his career and absolutely dominated. After stopping fellow undefeated Canadian Jay Hieron in less than two minutes with punches, St. Pierre challenged the reigning welterweight champion and perhaps best pound-for-pound fighter in the sport at the time, the legendary Matt Hughes. Did I mention this was within the same year he had debuted in the organization? That hill proved too much for even St. Pierre to climb, and he lost by submission.

The setback only fueled the young contender further, and after sensational, dominant wins over elite contenders in Dave Strasser, Jason Miller, Frank Trigg and Sean Sherk, as well as a split decision over fellow all-time legend B.J. Penn which is still hotly debated to this day, St. Pierre knocked out Hughes in a rematch to win the welterweight championship, cementing himself as perhaps the greatest fighter in the sport. After a shocking knockout loss to Matt Serra which actually wasn't as big back then as it is now in retrospect, St. Pierre would never lose again, dominating a slew of greats, including previous inclusions on this list; Koscheck twice, another one-sided beating of Hughes, decimating Serra and Penn in rematches, annihilations of Jon Fitch, Thiago Alves, Dan Hardy, Jake Shields, Nick Diaz, and a close decision over Carlos Condit. His last fight against Johnny Hendricks was controversial, with most, myself included believing St. Pierre deserved the loss. But again, when one is consistently facing the very best, this is bound to happen, and it happened less with St. Pierre than any other fighter, even other candidates for greatest ever, like Jon Jones.

After a years-long hiatus, St. Pierre shockingly resurfaced in 2016 to challenge the much larger UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping at a weight class he had never fought in. It seemed insane despite the perception that Bisping was a very weak champion, but the St. Pierre once again proved his greatness, finishing the Englishman in the third round. Thus, St. Pierre ended his UFC career on a perfect streak of 13-0, 11 of those for the undisputed championship, and pissed off Dana White for refusing to come back for more mega-fights after the Bisping triumph as a bonus. It may be decades before another Canadian fighter even comes close to challenging St. Pierre for the top spot on this list.