Georges St-Pierre

Georges St-Pierre (; born May 19, 1981) is a Canadian actor and former professional mixed martial artist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest fighters in mixed martial arts (MMA) history. St-Pierre was a two-division champion in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), having won titles in the welterweight and middleweight divisions.

St-Pierre is a three-time former UFC Welterweight Champion, having won the title twice and the interim title once between November 2006 and April 2008. St-Pierre was ranked as the #1 welterweight in the world for several years by Sherdog and numerous other publications. In 2008, 2009 and 2010 he was named the Canadian Athlete of the Year by Rogers Sportsnet. Fight Matrix lists him as the top MMA welterweight of all time and most accomplished fighter in MMA history.

He retired as the reigning Welterweight Champion in December 2013, having held the record for most wins in title bouts and the second longest combined title streak in UFC history (2,204 days) while defending his title nine consecutive times. He returned to the Octagon in November 2017 at UFC 217, when he defeated Michael Bisping by submission to win the Middleweight title, thus becoming the fourth fighter in the history of the UFC to be a multi-division champion.

Early life

St-Pierre, a Québécois, was born in Saint-Isidore, Montérégie, Quebec, to Roland and Pauline St-Pierre on May 19, 1981. St-Pierre has two younger sisters. St-Pierre had a difficult childhood, attending a school where others would steal his clothes and money. As a child he played hockey, skated and participated in several sports. He began learning Kyokushin Karate at age seven to defend himself against a school bully. He took up wrestling, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and boxing after his Karate teacher died when he was around 16 years old. St-Pierre attended high school at École Pierre-Bédard where he held the school record for number of chin-ups done. After graduation he enrolled in kinesiology studies at Cégep Édouard-Montpetit. Before turning pro as a mixed martial artist, St-Pierre worked as a bouncer at a Montreal night club in the South Shore called Fuzzy Brossard and as a garbageman for six months to pay for his school fees. Already a 2nd dan Kyokushin karate black belt at age 12, his first professional fight was at age 20.

As a youth, St-Pierre was inspired by Jean-Claude Van Damme, and described fighting him in the film '' Kickboxer: Vengeance'' as "a dream come true".

Training

St-Pierre has trained with a number of groups in a large variety of gyms throughout his fighting career. Prior to his fight with B.J. Penn at UFC 58, he trained at the Renzo Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy in New York City. St-Pierre received his brown belt in BJJ from Renzo Gracie on July 21, 2006. In September 2008, St-Pierre earned his black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu under Bruno Fernandes.

St-Pierre began training with Rashad Evans, Nathan Marquardt, Keith Jardine, Donald Cerrone and other mixed martial arts fighters at Greg Jackson's Submission Fighting Gaidojutsu school in New Mexico. Some of Jackson's students accompanied St-Pierre to Montreal to help prepare him for his fight at UFC 94 against B.J. Penn at the Tristar Gym, including Keith Jardine, Nathan Marquardt, Donald Cerrone, and Rashad Evans. Georges' strength and conditioning coach is Jonathan Chaimberg of Adrenaline Performance Centre in Montréal. Georges' Head Trainer is Firas Zahabi of Zahabi MMA, out of the Tristar gym. The two have cornered all of St-Pierre's most recent bouts and remain as his close friends. Between 2006 and 2009, St-Pierre trained in Muay Thai under Phil Nurse at the Wat in New York City.

Mixed martial arts career

Ultimate Fighting Championship

Early fights, ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championship and ''The Ultimate Fighter''

St-Pierre made his Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) debut at UFC 46, where he defeated highly ranked Karo Parisyan by unanimous decision (29–28, 30–27, and 30–27). His next fight in the UFC was against Jay Hieron at UFC 48. St-Pierre defeated Hieron via technical knockout in only 1:42 of the first round.

Following his second win in the UFC, he faced Matt Hughes at UFC 50 for the vacant UFC Welterweight Championship. Despite a competitive performance against the much more experienced fighter, St-Pierre tapped out to an armbar with only 10 seconds remaining in the first round. The loss was the first of St-Pierre's career and he has since admitted that he was in awe of Hughes going into the title bout.

After his loss to Matt Hughes, St-Pierre rebounded with a win over Dave Strasser at TKO 19 by a first-round kimura submission. He then returned to the UFC to face Jason Miller at UFC 52, defeating Miller by unanimous decision (30–27, 30–27, and 30–27).

A month after UFC 52, St-Pierre decided to participate in the biggest grappling tournament in the world in the under 77 kg division. In his first fight participation in the ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championship he faced Otto Olson (Trials champion and ADCC 2003 silver medalist beating names like Daniel Moraes, in the Trials final and in the first fight of the ADCC tournament, Fernando Augusto and Cris Brown). St-Pierre won on points showing superiority in Wrestling.
In his second fight, St-Pierre faced Leonardo Silva Dos Santos: bronze (2000) and silver (2001) medalist of the World IBJJF Jiu-Jitsu Championship and was defeated in a flying armbar at 50 seconds into the fight.

St-Pierre was then matched up against top contender Frank Trigg at UFC 54. St-Pierre controlled the fight and eventually sneaked in a rear-naked choke with less than a minute remaining in the first round. He then faced future lightweight champion Sean Sherk at UFC 56. Midway through the second round, St-Pierre became the second fighter to defeat Sherk and the first to finish him. During the post-fight interview, he famously went down on his knees with an impassioned plea to UFC management to give him another title shot.

At UFC 58, St-Pierre defeated former UFC welterweight champion B.J. Penn to become the No. 1 contender for the UFC welterweight title. St-Pierre won the match by split decision and was set for a rematch against then-champion Matt Hughes at UFC 63. St-Pierre was forced to withdraw from the match, however, due to a groin injury and was replaced by the man he defeated in March, B.J. Penn. The UFC announced afterward that St-Pierre would have the opportunity to fight for the title when his condition was fully healed.

St-Pierre was seen as a trainer on '' The Ultimate Fighter 4: The Comeback'' on Spike TV, which featured fighters who were previously seen in UFC events including Matt Serra, Shonie Carter, Pete Sell, Patrick Côté, and Travis Lutter. St-Pierre was seen vocally supporting fellow Canadian and training partner Patrick Côté during the season's airing.

Winning and losing the Welterweight Championship

At UFC 63, St-Pierre made an appearance to support fellow Canadian David "The Crow" Loiseau. At that time he was seen pushing Loiseau to "fight his fight" against Mike Swick. At the same event, after Matt Hughes had defeated B.J. Penn, St-Pierre stepped into the cage to hype up his upcoming title fight against Hughes, stating that he was glad that Hughes won his fight, but that he was "not impressed" by Hughes' performance.

According to both commentator Joe Rogan and Hughes' own autobiography, Hughes was unhappy with St-Pierre's statement. Hughes said that they "had words" off-camera shortly after, at which time St-Pierre apologized, saying he had misunderstood something Hughes had said on the microphone and did not mean to offend him. St-Pierre challenged Matt Hughes again at UFC 65 for the UFC Welterweight Championship. The fight was almost stopped near the end of the first round when St-Pierre sent Hughes to the mat with a superman punch and left hook, but Hughes managed to survive the first round. In the second round, St-Pierre won the fight via technical knockout after a left kick to Hughes' head followed by a barrage of unanswered punches and elbows. After the fight, on January 30, 2007, St-Pierre signed a new six-fight deal with the UFC.

At UFC 69 in 2007, St-Pierre suffered only his second (and last, as of his official retirement in 2019) loss in MMA, when he lost the welterweight title to ''The Ultimate Fighter 4'' winner Matt Serra when Serra forced the referee to step in after a series of unanswered strikes at 3:25 of round one. Matt Serra was an 11–1 underdog going into the bout.
St-Pierre has said that he lost the match partially due to a lack of focus because of problems in his personal life, including the death of a close cousin and his father's serious illness, and later parted ways with his manager and most of his entourage. St-Pierre has since gone on to say that he should not have made any excuses and that Serra was simply the better fighter that night.

Championship pursuits

On August 25, 2007, at UFC 74, St-Pierre won a unanimous decision (30–27, 29–28, and 29–28) over Josh Koscheck. He outwrestled Koscheck, who is a four-time Division I NCAA All-American and an NCAA wrestling champion, by scoring takedowns, stopping Koscheck's takedown attempts and maintaining top position throughout most of the fight. Many predicted that Koscheck would outmatch St-Pierre on the ground due to his credentials, but St-Pierre was confident that he was a better wrestler and striker and was more well-versed in submissions than Koscheck.

Before and after the fight, St-Pierre stated his intention to reclaim his lost title, miming the act of placing a championship belt around his waist while still in the octagon. His win over Koscheck had placed him in the No. 1 contender spot for the UFC Welterweight Championship. That fight was to be against the winner of Matt Hughes and Matt Serra. Matt Serra had to pull out of UFC 79 due to a back injury sustained during training, and instead St-Pierre faced Hughes in a rubber match for the interim UFC Welterweight Championship. Hughes was unable to mount any serious offense against St-Pierre, who again showcased his wrestling skills by not only avoiding all of Hughes' takedown attempts but also taking Hughes down at will. In a reversal of their first fight, St-Pierre attempted a kimura on Hughes' right arm, then switched to a straight armbar with fifteen seconds left in the second round. Hughes fought the extension, but was forced to verbally submit at 4:55 of the second round, making St-Pierre the interim Welterweight Champion.

Welterweight Championship unification bout

At UFC 83 on April 19, 2008, St-Pierre fought Matt Serra in a rematch to determine the undisputed UFC welterweight champion. It was the UFC's first event in Canada and was held at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Québec. Instead of starting with strikes, St-Pierre pressed the action early with a takedown and then mixed up his attack, which never allowed Serra the chance to mount a significant offense. In the second round, St-Pierre continued his previous actions and forced Serra into the turtle position and delivered several knees to Serra's midsection. Near the end of round two, the fight was stopped by referee Yves Lavigne with a visibly gassed Serra unable to defend himself from St-Pierre's continuous knee blows or improve his position.

Championship defenses

St-Pierre's first title defense after regaining the belt was against Jon Fitch at UFC 87. Fitch was on a 16-fight winning streak and a victory against St-Pierre would have been Fitch's ninth consecutive UFC win, a new UFC record. St-Pierre defeated Jon Fitch by unanimous decision (50–43, 50–44, and 50–44), scoring multiple devastating strikes and taking the former Purdue wrestling captain down seemingly at will.

The win over Fitch set up one of the most anticipated rematches in UFC history. B.J. Penn entered the octagon after Fitch's loss and challenged St-Pierre to a rematch of their UFC 58 bout from 2006, which had ended in a split-decision victory for St-Pierre. The rematch took place on January 31, 2009, at UFC 94. The first round of the fight was nearly even, with both men exchanging punches and Penn exercising elusive head movement, fast hands, good takedown defense - thwarting all of St-Pierre's take-down attempts. In the ensuing three rounds, however, Penn put forth a lackluster performance. St-Pierre dominated the rest of the bout, scoring the first take-down of the night midway through the second round and from that point on, taking Penn down at will, repeatedly passing his guard, and persistently punishing the Hawaiian with a brutal ground-and-pound attack.

The fight ended after the fourth round when Penn's cornerman, Jason Parillo, requested that the referee stop the fight. Penn failed to attend the post-fight press conference due to hospitalization for injuries. Penn later admitted that he could not recall anything that happened during the 3rd and 4th rounds because "I was probably borderline knocked out or something." During the fight, Penn complained that St-Pierre was too slippery to hold, which led to suspicion about petroleum jelly being illegally applied to St-Pierre's back. The matter was formally investigated by the UFC and Nevada State Athletic Commission upon the request of the Penn camp. Dana White said it was unfortunate GSP's dominant win was overshadowed by the cornerman controversy. "Do I think that he got greased? Yeah, I do," White told ''The Canadian Press'' prior to the UFC 95 weigh-in Friday at the Dominion Theatre. "Absolutely, 100 percent, I think that that guy was rubbing grease on him. Do I think Georges was trying to cheat? Absolutely not at all, but that cornerman was rubbing grease on him; you cannot do that."

Prior to UFC 100, Beau Dure of ''USA Today'' stated that St-Pierre was possibly "the best in the world." At the event, St-Pierre defeated No. 1 contender Thiago Alves by unanimous decision (50–45, 50–44, and 50–45). Alves showed promise on his feet standing up in the fight, but St-Pierre's wrestling offensive, endurance, and ground control proved too much for the challenger and put St-Pierre en route to a unanimous decision victory, despite suffering a pulled groin muscle in the third round. While St-Pierre said in his post-fight interview that the injury was sustained in the third round, he later said on his blog that the injury in fact occurred in the fourth round. On July 18, 2009, it was revealed that St-Pierre's groin injury would not require surgery.

St-Pierre successfully defended his welterweight title against Dan Hardy on March 27, 2010, at UFC 111 which took place in Newark, New Jersey