GSP

Over the weekend, Georges St-Pierre (GSP) officially retired from MMA competition. GSP was one of my favourite fighters and always a joy for me to watch, but I am very happy to see him call it quits after having such a great career. Within his pro MMA career, he achieved much, defending his belt multiple times and taking on challenger after challenger, able to overcome unique challenges while managing to make it look relatively easy.


GSP had his first fight on 25th Jan 2002 and his last on 4th Nov 2017. In that time, he had 28 fights with only 2 defeats; both of which he avenged. Early in his career he would finish fights quickly – so quickly in fact, that people said he looked like he was in a rush to go somewhere. And so, GSP gained his fight name: ‘Rush’. As he progressed through the ranks, he would dominate his opponents and, in my opinion, was given a title shot he wasn’t mentally ready for. The champion at the time was Matt Hughes. Hughes was a dominant champ and at that time, looked unbeatable. GSP was scared of him, so scared in fact, that Georges managed to look everywhere but at Hughes during their stare-down. While GSP put up a good fight, he got caught in an armbar and lost the fight. However, he had lost the fight long before he got in the cage; he was intimidated by his hero, consequently unable to fight as he normally would. GSP vowed to come back – he had a couple more fights then got his rematch against Hughes. This was a different GSP, he was not intimated… he was on a mission for the title. GSP won the fight via TKO, he was very dominant and looked to be on a level above everyone at the time. After that fight, GSP had everyone telling him how good he was – he was told he was too good, too fast and too athletic to lose. This would prove to be his downfall when he fought Matt Serra, who had earned the title shot by winning the Ultimate Fighter. To say Serra was an underdog would be an understatement, think more Tyson v Douglas level of under-doggery. With GSP’s confidence swelling, he believed that he would steamroll Serra and earn an easy victory. However, GSP got caught with a good punch early, and in his words “instead of trying to recover I was too proud and tried to fight back” this allowed Serra to land some more punches and get the win via TKO in one of the biggest upsets the sport has seen. Following this loss, a quest to regain the title culminated in a third fight with Matt Hughes. This fight proved to be a one-sided affair; GSP was so dominant that you couldn’t believe Hughes was ever a dominant fighter, GSP rag dolled Hughes, finishing him with an armbar that earned St-Pierre a submission of the night award. GSP would then rematch Serra for the welterweight belt. This fight went according to plan; St-Pierre made Serra look average and proved to himself and critics that this is the GSP who was meant to turn up for the first fight.

To me, GSP is the best MMA fighter. Yes, there are people with better knockouts and have more ‘exciting’ fights, but in terms of doing it right, GSP is the best. GSP made 3 mistakes in his 28 fights 1. Being intimidated by Hughes 2. Not respecting Serra 3. Getting caught with a head kick by Condit (from which he recovered and went on to win). Other than that, the guy did everything right in his fights. He had some close fights – namely the first fight against BJ Penn and against Hendricks. In his fights, GSP decided how the fight was going to go. He would decide where the fight would take place, whether it was standing or on the ground. The timing of his takedowns is the best the sport has seen. When one says he made a fighter look average, it’s because he had the ability to understand his opponents’ strengths and keep them in an area where he was stronger, or where they were relatively weaker. He employed this simple strategy and chased it with enthusiastic vigour, consequently taking his opponents to uncomfortable places. Despite not competing or training in wrestling prior to MMA, GSP has amazing wrestling. He would use this ability to dictate the place and pace of the fight by either taking them down, avoiding the takedown or using top control on the ground. His striking was top level as seen when he destroyed Koscheck’s orbital bone and he had a very good ground game. So regardless of where the fight is, you have to be very careful because GSP poses problems in all areas.

GSP is also a great athlete who would try through non-traditional methods to get better at his craft. Of course, he used top BJJ people to improve his BJJ, trained with the Canadian national Wrestling team and boxed with pros to improve. It was the additional training that made him so good – he used an athletics coach to help him with explosiveness and gymnastics to help his coordination and strength. GSP said he it was fear that drove him to improve… well, it worked. His main BJJ coach is John Danaher, who is highly respected, MMA coach was Faris Zahabi, who is the top guy at Tri Star Gym and has a genius level IQ for fighting. GSP also employed the help of kickboxing great and coach Phil Nurse. St-Pierre was always looking to improve so he managed to train with the best, always open to learning, even if information came from strange sources. This was demonstrated when GSP was a coach on the ultimate fighter. He brought in an unorthodox French kickboxer named Jean-Charles Skarbowsky. Skarbowsky boasts some amazing kickboxing accolades which includes being a three-time European Muay Thai champion. Skarbowsky however, drinks and smokes a lot. GSP said that he did not agree with his lifestyle but be careful when sparring him, if he thinks you have disrespected him then you are in trouble. GSP was telling pro fighters to be careful against this striking guy, who quite frankly does not look like much. Well in the sparring, Jean-Charles dropped every one of them with kicks to the body, liver punches and foot trips; he just made them look silly. The guy had some serious skill, just didn’t seem to worry about his health too much.

GSP was bullied when he was younger and he has talked about how fear has been with him his entire life; interestingly enough though, he never hid it but rather embraced it and used it. When a GSP fight was announced, he would say how this opponent is a very dangerous and then list the concerns he would have about that opponent. Especially after the Matt Serra fight, GSP would always give his opponents the respect they deserved, regardless if he liked them or not (He did not like the Diaz brothers, and they did not like him). The press was not accustomed to this approach and neither were the public; both were used to the boxing style of insults and fights at press conferences. GSP would always be dressed in a suit and well spoken, even with a French-Canadian accent. He treats fans with respect as he saw some people treat their fans badly and he said that if he became famous, he would never do that.

I am glad that we don’t get to see GSP fight Khabib, or any other fighter in fact, as we have seen too many legends take a few fights too many and get destroyed. GSP has retired on top and will be remembered as one of the greatest fighters the sport has ever seen. To this day, I watch his highlights and try to see just how he sets up his takedowns as he just makes them look effortless. GSP is so systematic with his fights and so technical that he was just the best fighter to watch. Khabib has taken that mantle now. GSP has said he will continue to train as he is a lifelong martial artist. Thanks to GSP for the memories and making a very difficult sport look rather easy.

Gareth Lewis
Head MMA Instructor