411 Fighter Profile: Georges St. Pierre
Posted by Lotfi Sariahmed on 04.15.2008
He's fighting this Saturday Night against Matt Serra. So, in continuing with 411Mania's Fighter Profiles, Lotfi Sariahmed gives you a profile on Georges "Rush" St. Pierre!
Georges "Rush" St. Pierre
Nickname: "Rush" Record: 15-2 Weight: 169 lbs. Height: 5'10" Hometown: St. Isidore, Quebec, Canada Ranking 1st on 411Mania's Welterweight Rankings, 3rd on P4P Rankings Association: Jackson's Submission Fighting Organizations: UFC, TKO, UCC Accomplishments: UFC Interim Welterweight Champ, Former UFC Welterweight Champ, Former TKO Welterweight Champ
Introduction
You may not have known this, but GSP has a fight coming up on Saturday. And rumor has it; it's a big fight too. Or at least that's what the guy who writes Planet Tapout told me. And for as much as everyone wants to say it's a foregone conclusion that he'll win the belt, it's still a big fight for him. So before his fight on Saturday night we figured, "Hey, why not put together a profile on St. Pierre?"
Early Life & Training
Born in St. Isidore Quebec Canada, "Rush" started in combat sports with Kyokushin karate at six. He moved from karate to jiu-jitsu and then started with boxing and wrestling all before the age of 16, which was his first amateur bout (of course he won that). St. Pierre's bounced around to a lot of different camps through his MMA career but his two most notable stays have been with Patrick Cote and David Loiseau in Canada. Then he made the move down to Jackson's Submission Fighting later in his career. The interesting part about that is the move to Jackson's Submission Fighting came around the same time Diego Sanchez was moving up the ranks to welterweight title contention. So the longtime Jackson student decided to leave the camp citing a potential conflict of interest with Jackson training a guy in St. Pierre he could soon be facing.
MMA Career
1.25.2002—UCC 7: Bad Boyz
Win over Ivan Menjivar by TKO at 4:50 in the 1st round
Forget that he (Menjivar) fights at lightweight now, that's still a very impressive victory for your debut.
6.15.2002—UCC 10: Battle for the Belts 2002
Win over Justin Bruckmann by armbar submission at 3:23 in the 1st round
It's a fight that won him his first belt, the TKO Welterweight Strap.
10.11.2002—UCC 11: The Next Level
Win over Travis Galbraith by TKO at 2:03 in the 1st round
1.25.2003—UCC 12: Adrenaline
Win over Thomas Denny by TKO due to a cut at 4:45 in the 2nd round
Thomas Denny is the answer to a trivia question. Who's the first man to take Georges St. Pierre out of the first round in a fight?
11.29.2003—TKO 14: Road Warriors
Win over Pete Spratt by rear naked choke submission at 3:40 in the 1st round
1.31.2004—UFC 46: Supernatural
Win over Karo Parisyan by unanimous decision
In the first 12 fights on his career, Parisyan had only lost to one guy, Sean Sherk (twice). GSP made it two.
6.19.2004—UFC 48: Payback
Win over Jay Hieron by TKO at 1:42 in the 1st round
Make what you will of the IFL but considering that Hieron is the welterweight champ in that division, it speaks to how dominant St. Pierre has become.
10.22.2004—UFC 50: The War of 04
Loss to Matt Hughes by armbar submission at 4:59 in the 1st round
Maybe it was a case of too much too quickly as St. Pierre succumbed to an armbar with one second left in the first round. It came after St. Pierre surprised everyone by avoiding the takedown for the majority of the first round.
1.29.2005—TKO 19: Rage
Win over David Strasser by kimura submission at 1:52 in the 1st round
Appropriately named given he was coming off his first loss…
4.16.2005—UFC 52: Couture v. Liddell 2
Win over Jason Miller by unanimous decision
If anyone other than "Mayhem" were his opponent, GSP would have finished the fight. He just gave Miller a beating this fight.
8.20.2005—UFC 54: Boiling Point
Win over Frank Trigg by rear naked choke submission at 4:09 in the 1st round
Hey, GSP is for real…and Trigg found out first hand in this fight.
11.19.2005—UFC 56: Full Force
Win over Sean Sherk by TKO at 2:53 in the 2nd round
Sean Sherk has a record of 31-2-1. This was his last loss and the only loss on his record where he was stopped before the final bell. Talking about continuing a "Tour De Force."
3.4.2006—UFC 58: USA vs. Canada
Win over B.J. Penn by split decision
Yes, GSP didn't do too much this fight to win. But B.J. Penn gassed after the first round and did less…
11.18.2006—UFC 65: Bad Intentions
Win over Matt Hughes by TKO at 1:25 in the 2nd round
GSP was more than just a challenger in this fight he was a bit of a superhero taking down the evil villain in Hughes. I remember being at a sports bar watching this fight and the whole crowd went into an uproar after GSP scored the TKO. Both fighters talked about being different and much improved fighters since their first bout…turns out at least GSP was right.
4.7.2007—UFC 69: Shootout
Loss to Matt Serra by TKO at 3:25 in the 1st round
Chalk it up to whatever you want, but Serra beat up St. Pierre and set "Rush" up for a seemingly very long road back.
8.25.2007—UFC 74: Respect
Win over Josh Koscheck by unanimous decision
It's a fight that definitively outlines that there is a difference between being an All-American wrestler and a great MMA wrestler.
12.29.2007—UFC 79: Nemesis
Win over Matt Hughes by armbar submission at 4:54 in the 2nd round
Looking back to before the bout, should St. Pierre have been an even bigger favorite against Hughes?
The Future
Well, there's UFC 83 this Saturday and his rematch with Matt Serra. After that he'll either be in limbo or at the beginning of a potentially very long run as champ. If St. Pierre does win, Jon Fitch will be next and if he goes through the division maybe we'll see "Rush" take on "The Spider?" Of course that means he would come out on top in fights against Fitch, Sanchez, Koscheck, Alves, Parisyan and who knows who else becomes a contender in that stretch.
