Issue 014

June 2010

One of the fastest rising stars in the world of mixed martial arts today, Georges St. Pierre is quickly becoming a household name. St. Pierre has already beaten some of the top ranked welterweights in the world, rapidly climbing the rankings to find his place among the elite fighters in the sport. Lisa Pancino sat down with the future challenger to the UFC welterweight throne to discuss his recent fight with former WW Champ BJ Penn, his future in the UFC, and the possibility of moving up in weight.

At only 25 years of age, it’s almost terrifying hoe Georges St. Pierre keeps improving and developing, both physically and mentally, with each fight he takes on. After his latest successful UFC showing St. Pierre made a stop at Toronto BJJ club, where he delivered a weekend-long seminar and taught eager MMA enthusiasts some of his favourite techniques, including a secret ‘Canadians-only’ manoeuvre.

Taking time off after his hard-fought battle with BJ Penn at UFC 58 to vacation with friends in the Mayan Riviera, St. Pierre was eager to get back into training. He is looking forward to avenging his only loss, as well as the chance to challenge for the UFC welterweight crown. “I like to take at least a week off after every fight and go back to training slowly. It’s important to take time off but sometimes I want to get back to training so I cheat and go do weights.”

His latest fight was admittedly the toughest of his career. The first five minutes of his three-round war with Penn essentially became an act of survival. “In the first round I don’t know if I got poked in the eye or hit in the eye, but I saw double for probably 3 minutes…but I didn’t want to let BJ know I was hurt. I just tried to survive the round.” St. Pierre regained his vision by the second round but admits that BJ did a lot of damage in the opening round.

“BJ made me look very bad in the first round. He hit my nose and it was bleeding badly. It wasn’t as bad as it looked though. BJ definitely won the first round. For sure I give him the first round.” After the first round, however, St. Pierre knew that he had to step up his game in order to turn the fight around and score points on the judges’ cards. “In the first round I wanted to keep it standing, but in the second round I wanted to score some points with takedowns.” Conditioning may have played a significant role in the fight as well, as St. Pierre points out. “BJ’s conditioning was not as good [as mine]. I was not tired after the first round.”

St. Pierre agrees with the judges’ scorecards, which ruled the fight a split decision. This saw one judge give it to Penn, while the other two voted for St. Pierre. For those who have protested this decision, St. Pierre is willing to put the arguments and uncertainty to rest by stepping up again to rematch Penn. “I would like to fight him again, maybe after I fight Matt Hughes. The poke or the hit to my eye had a big impact on the fight. I don’t want to make excuses, but I think I would do better if that did not happen.”

Before he steps into the octagon to face BJ again, he will first have to get through the only man to ever defeat him, UFC welterweight Champion Matt Hughes. He admits he has changed a lot as a fighter since his first bout with Hughes, and his newfound confidence is unmistakable. “A rematch with Hughes will be a tough fight, but I will win next time.” St. Pierre obviously thinks there is little chance Hughes will lose to Royce Gracie at UFC 60 on 27^th May, not even counting a possible match against Gracie in his plans. 

In his first match up with Hughes, St. Pierre contends that he gave Hughes too much respect. As one of his idols, and a living legend in the sport, St. Pierre felt it an honour to step into the ring with Hughes. A class act in both victory and defeat, St. Pierre takes nothing away from Hughes’ win over him and gives his full accolades for his victory. He is adamant, however, that it will not happen the second time around. “I respect everybody. Next time I will be careful not to get caught. I still respect him, but I am not afraid of him. I will not let him impose his game plan like the last fight.”

Speaking of his maturing as a fighter, St. Pierre points to the differences in the way he fought Hughes compared to his latest fight versus Penn. “To show how much I’ve matured as a fighter, look at how I fought BJ. BJ was also one of my favourite fighters, one of my idols, just like Matt Hughes.” After a difficult first round with BJ, St. Pierre relied on his mental strength to push him to keep going, much different than his fight with Hughes.

After a tough opening round with Hughes, many would have scored the fight to that point in favour of the underdog, St. Pierre. Mentally defeated however, St. Pierre did not see how well he was doing in the fight until it was too late. “I knew the time was over, but I mentally gave up. I thought he was winning the fight. I didn’t realize until after when I saw the replay that I was winning.”

After taking that loss, the first in his MMA career, St. Pierre went on to win five straight fights in the UFC, each successive outing pushing him further, testing his mental and physical limits.

After beating top-ranked fighter Frank Trigg in a bout that made Trigg look like a rookie, St. Pierre took on a virtual carbon copy of Matt Hughes in Sean Sherk. Although many believed Sherk’s strength and wrestling skills would be too much for St. Pierre to handle, St. Pierre once again reigned victorious, controlling the duration of the bout, not even allowing Sherk to move in close enough to score a takedown.

Feeling as though he deserved another shot at Hughes and the welterweight title, St. Pierre dropped to his knees after his victory against Sherk and pleaded with the UFC to give him another shot at the title. He again asked for this opportunity after defeating Penn, and it looks as though he may get his wish. “My next fight will be for the title for sure. It’s in my contract that I will fight for the title next. If they don’t give me a title shot, it’s because they do not want me as the champion.”

St. Pierre made a switch in his training for his fight with Penn, travelling from Montreal, Canada, where he had previously trained with BTT Canada, to New York to train at Renzo Gracie’s academy.

“There are political reasons for not training at BTT. I’m still friendly with them, and I respect them. I will continue to train at Renzo’s for my next fights. I think this is a very good place for me to train.”

Not only is St. Pierre ranked among the top mixed martial artists in the world, but he was also placed among the world’s elite grapplers at last year’s Abu Dhabi Submission Wrestling Championships. Invited to California to compete in the 77kg division, St. Pierre felt as though this was an opportunity of a lifetime. “Abu Dhabi was a great experience, and I want to do it again.”

St. Pierre steers clear of becoming too friendly with other competitors in MMA, but at Abu Dhabi he was forced to face a long-time grappling friend, and the brother of his first BJJ trainer (Wagney Fabiano), formidable BJJ black belt Leo Santos. This wasn’t a problem for him, however, as St. Pierre explains. “Fighting someone in grappling is different than fighting someone in MMA. I can fight my team-mates in grappling. It was the experience of a lifetime. I go to improve my skills as an MMA fighter, not just to win.”

Losing to Santos, St. Pierre takes the loss as a learning experience, and uses grappling competitions, such as Abu Dhabi, to test himself and improve his MMA skills. He hopes to be invited to the next instalment of the ADCC tournament, but for now is focused on his MMA fighting career.

Currently in his sights is the UFC welterweight title, but what does St. Pierre see beyond welterweight gold? “When I reach my goal of winning the UFC welterweight belt, I will have to fight whoever is at the top, maybe some newcomers. There are a lot of guys at 170lbs, but maybe I will go to fight the top guys at 185lbs.”

Moving up in weight is something St. Pierre believes the fans would like to see him do if he captures the welterweight title. He has already run through the top contenders in the division, and barring the introduction of several skilled newcomers to the weight class, there aren’t many current competitors who would give St. Pierre much competition.

But how will St. Pierre handle the jump in weight? He believes that the division may actually be easier for him to compete in. “Maybe this division will be easier because there are less people and I think they are not as skilled as [those at] 170lbs.”

For the time being, however, St. Pierre will remain in the welterweight division, focused on the two rematches that he hopes to face in the near future.

Fighters Only asked a panel of our contributors their thoughts on how St Pierre would fare in a rematch with welterweight champion Hughes.

Darragh Creamer:

Georges St Pierre would appear to be the new generation of fighter. He’s big for his weight class, strong, skilled in all aspects of the sport and can beat anyone on any given day, except Matt Hughes. Matt’s experience made the difference in their last match and will see him through the rematch too, though this time I don’t think he’ll underestimate St Pierre and will look to impose his will from the start.

Leigh Remedios:

GSP has improved loads and has been more dominant against their common opponents. I never like to count Matt out but I think he’ll struggle to put Georges on his back and will get punched a lot trying, until the ref stops it.

Jim Page:

There’s a very short list of fighters who have a good chance of beating Matt Hughes - and Georges St Pierre is certainly on it. Matt won last time and is a ferocious champion, but I think Georges will have improved more since then. I pick Georges by the closest of decisions.

Denis Martins:

Actually I think that St. Pierre is the only guy who can really beat up Matt Hughes, and we all know that a rematch has a different atmosphere for both fighters.

Damon Martin:

I think Georges St. Pierre is at the top of his game right now but Matt Hughes is still the best in that weight class. Until he retires, the title belongs to Hughes.