George St-Pierre was renowned for his sublime fighting IQ, but on one occasion, he made a huge error that left him feeling like an ‘idiot’.
‘Rush’ came away with the victory almost every single time he set foot in the cage, but in this instance, it wasn’t to be.
Matt Serra made Georges St-Pierre feel like an ‘idiot’
At UFC 69, on April 7, 2007, at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas, USA, Georges St-Pierre succumbed to possibly the biggest upset in MMA history.
On a night the sport will never forget, Matt Serra landed several destructive punches on the legend, before forcing him to submit to strikes.
With the benefit of hindsight, after coming out of the contest, St-Pierre knew exactly what went wrong, feeling foolish for making such a mistake.
However, he’s completely fine with the decision he made to tap out.
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In an interview on This Past Weekend with Theo Von, he said: “I tapped out to strikes and I’m not afraid to say it, because there is this thing in our sport people, say, ‘You tapped out to strikes — you quit. But man, it’s a sport; we’re not in a war.
“Matt Serra really surprised me because I was more worried about his ground game than his stand-up. When he caught me, I remember, I got emotional because I wanted to give it back to him straight away,
“Like an idiot, I fell into a slugfest. When you’re stunned, you’re not accurate because you’re dizzy. He was accurate, and he hits very hard.
“Because I didn’t know where I was, I tapped out. I’d rather save myself for another day.”
Georges St-Pierre gives an interesting explanation as to why he turned down an offer to fight Nate Diaz from the UFC
Learning his mistakes from the first clash, St-Pierre overcame the adversity in his way and beat Serra in the rematch.
The victory helped solidify the grappler as one of the best to ever do it. And while he’s now retired, his fans would still love to see him return to the cage.
And within the last few years, that almost happened, with the icon receiving a huge offer to take on Nate Diaz.
But the 43-year-old has now explained why he turned that down.
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