Georges St. Pierre is perhaps the most dominant fighter in UFC history. He’s amassed a record of 15-2 in his seven year UFC career, winning seven of those fights definitively. But the fight game is a what have you done lately sport – and four of St. Pierre’s last five fights have gone to the judges. It’s led a new generation of fans to whisper that the welterweight kingpin can’t finish.
In fact, over his superlative career, no one has displayed a more invigorating collection of finishing techniques than Georges St. Pierre. His hands, feet, elbows, and his keen mind are all dangerous weapons – as we’re about to see with this in depth look at the finishing techniques of a great champion. (Photos courtesy of UFC.com)
Opponent: Jay Hieron
Technique: Punches
Jay Hieron started fighting because he was furious. Tossed out of Hofstra before his senior season after he was caught smoking weed, Hieron was mad at the world. He took to the streets where he proceeded to take out his anger on anyone he could find. Instead of picking his life back up and starting fresh, Hieron spiraled out of control. A drug habit became a profession. Jail followed.
For Jay Hieron, the UFC was a second chance. It was a storybook tale of redemption – until he ran into Georges St. Pierre. It took less than two minutes for St. Pierre to send Hieron back to the drawing board. After just a year training MMA, Hieron was amazingly good. St. Pierre was better, battering him with punches and kicks finally knocking him down with a three punch combo and finishing him off with punches and elbows on the ground.
Opponent: Frank Trigg
Technique: Rear Naked Choke
It was a fight for a title shot as the number two and number three welterweights in the world squared off in Las Vegas. Frank Trigg, before his run in professional wrestling, committed a cardinal sin: when promoting your fight, never downgrade and dismiss your opponent’s ability. Trigg called St. Pierre a “B-Level Fighter.” It was a critique that made no sense. If Trigg could have pulled of the win, well, so what? You just beat a guy you told the world wasn’t a top fighter. If he runs through you like a freight train, which he did, guess what? You got beat by a “B-Level Fighter.”
St. Pierre was no doubt angry. But he saved his efforts for the cage. Trigg was a great fighter who had taken champion Matt Hughes to the limit. St. Pierre mauled him. It wasn’t even competitive. When St. Pierre locked in the rear naked choke, there was no escape. Someone looked like a “B-Level Fighter” that night – but it wasn’t Georges St. Pierre.
Opponent: Sean Sherk
Technique: Ground and Pound
When Sean Sherk met Georges St. Pierre in the middle of the Octagon he was a confident man. Rightfully so. He had lost just once in a 33 fight career. Sure the bulk of those fights had occurred in places like Worley, Idaho or Brainerd, Minnesota but he had established his bonafides on the world level by surviving five rounds with the great Matt Hughes.
Sherk is absolutely jacked here; they don’t call him the Muscle Shark for no reason. But St. Pierre is a true welterweight and looks the part. Sherk is a blown up lightweight and that was the difference in the fight. In the second round St. Pierre takes down the wrestler and drops some brutal ground and pound from the top position. A huge left elbow comes crashing down and Sherk literally screams, incensed about the decisions he had made in his life that led to this moment, the indignity of having a grown man on top of him raining down blows, and, oh yeah, the pain. The end is nigh as referee Herb Dean finally rescues Sherk from an extended beating. St. Pierre was clearly a force in the welterweight division. Sherk and Trigg had both given champion Matt Hughes trouble. St. Pierre had treated them like pesky children. It was time for the challenger to meet the champion once again – and this time the fight world was expecting a totally different match.
Opponent: Matt Hughes
Technique: Head Kick
The second fight between Matt Hughes and Georges St. Pierre wasn’t just for the UFC’s welterweight title. The winner would arguably be the best pound for pound fighter in the sport. Both had beaten Trigg, Sherk, and a returning B.J. Penn. Both were well rounded, strong as oxes, and tough as nails. It was supposed to be a fight for the ages.
At first it looked like there might not be a fight at all. St. Pierre nailed Hughes in the junk, not once, but twice in a row in the first round. Hughes gutted it out and returned to action, but probably regretted it later. St. Pierre absolutely destroyed him, shrugging off a takedown attempt and nailing him with a “Superman” punch and left hook. He was on his way to a stoppage it seemed when the bell rang to end the round.
Hughes had one minute to regroup in his corner between rounds. He could have had one week or one year. A lifetime of reflection wouldn’t have helped. St. Pierre was the better fighter and proved it, catching Hughes ducking in for a takedown with a brutal left high kick. It wasn’t Cro Cop, but it was close enough. Some perfunctory ground and pound followed but it was the kick that finished it. Georges St. Pierre, after chasing the title for almost three years, was finally the welterweight champion of the world.
After the break: More great finishes from GSP
Opponent: Matt Hughes
Technique: Armbar
The third and deciding match in a great trilogy between Hughes and St. Pierre was originally supposed to be Hughes challenging Matt Serra for the welterweight title he had shocked the world by taking from St. Pierre at UFC 69 in Houston. Hughes and Serra had gone back and forth in a great season of The Ultimate Fighter, but a Serra back injury forced him to pull out of the fight. GSP was right there, ready and willing, to take on Hughes for an interim title.
The evening started off strangely, with ring announcer Bruce Buffer announcing to the world that St. Pierre was “standing five feet tall.” With the addition of bantamweights to the UFC, he might actually get to make that announcement one day, but for St. Pierre, it was 11 inches short of the mark. By this point it’s not even a competitive matchup. Hughes, until St. Pierre the greatest welterweight in MMA history, has no answers for the young Canadian. GSP doesn’t just defend Hughes’s takedowns with aplomb, he takes the former NCAA All American down with shocking ease. St. Pierre finishes the once great champion with an armbar, but it looked like he could have done whatever he wanted with him. St. Pierre had taken not just his own game, but the entire fight game to a new level.
Opponent: Matt Serra
Technique: Knees to the Body
In the fights with Matt Hughes the crown reaction was a mixed bag for GSP. Both men were cheered but in the first fight there were scattered “USA, USA” chants throughout the building. Someone could have started a “USA” chant in the Bell Centre in St. Pierre’s hometown of Montreal, Quebec, Canada at UFC 83 – if they didn’t want to make it out of the building alive. His opponent, diminutive champion Matt Serra, had committed two mortal sins in the eyes of Canadian fans. First, he had the nerve to upset St. Pierre with a shocking punch to the temple that staggered the seemingly unbeatable champion. And, perhaps more importantly, he had the nerve to mock hockey in the build up to the fight.
The pre-fight trash talk was fun. It certainly got the crowd interested in the bout. But once the bell rang, it was all St. Pierre. Carefully avoiding Serra’s looping power punches, St. Pierre took the jiu jitsu wizard down and pounded on him couldn’t fight anymore. By the second round Serra had resorted to turtling up, collapsing into a ball and hoping St. Pierre would just leave him be. But this wasn’t old school Pancrase. St. Pierre responded to this tactic with brutal efficiency, kneeing him in the side again and again until the referee has no choice to stop the fight. It was the fight we had all expected the first time around – lightning, I suppose, only strikes once.
Opponent: B.J. Penn
Technique: No Mas
Penn was the UFC’s lightweight champion, but some things never change – the money fights were at 170 pounds. And Penn, like all fighters, has money on his mind. Besides, the 155 pound god had given St. Pierre his toughest fight in 2006, narrowly losing a split decision many thought could have gone his way. But that was against the old St. Pierre. The new GSP was a different beast.
For three rounds Penn has no answer to St. Pierre’s grinding game plan. The champion is leaning on the Hawaiian wherever the fight goes, wearing him down, breaking him. By the fourth round Penn has nothing left to give. St. Pierre dominates from bell to bell, a textbook 10-8 round. In the corner, as the seconds count down for the fifth round to begin, Penn never gets up off his stool. His cornerman and brother Reagan tells officials Penn isn’t going to fight anymore. The proud champion has quit in the corner.
Although some fans may have complained about the conservative game plan, this was GSP at his best. It’s one thing to win with a flash knockout or tricky submission. It’s another to push someone until they break, deciding in their heart of hearts that they just don’t have what it takes to beat you. That is dominance. That is Georges St. Pierre.
UFC® 129: ST-PIERRE vs. SHIELDS airs Saturday, April 30 LIVE on Pay-Per-View at 9:00 PM ET/6:00 PM PT.