The Three-Step Guide To Defeating UFC Champion Georges St. Pierre

He’s the Michael Jordan of Mixed Martial Arts, the Derek Jeter of fighting. A virtual Terminator in a John Conner-less world of humans.

Put simply, UFC Welterweight champion Georges “Rush” St. Pierre is not only one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world but he may rank as the greatest athlete this sport has ever produced.

He’s Tiger Woods, Babe Ruth and Wayne Gretzky rolled into one. He has the striking ability to make the late Bruce Lee look amateurish, the Jiu-Jitsu skills of 10 high level black belts, and the most relentless wrestling in MMA period.

Not to mention the guy has insane cardiovascular endurance and could fight all day at a frantic pace and never tire. St. Pierre seems less like a human and more like an unstoppable cyborg every time he competes. But is he truly unbeatable?

In this sport nobody is untouchable and even St. Pierre has tasted defeat twice in his career. The first loss came at the hands of a future UFC Hall of Famer and a man whom St. Pierre looked up to as a role model — then Welterweight champion Matt Hughes. In the pre-fight stare down St. Pierre could not even look into Hughes’s eyes because the champion was his idol and it messed with his head.

For those who can’t understand that picture this; you’re a young kid with the dream of becoming a professional baseball player someday. You looked up to and idolized Atlanta Braves third basemen Chipper Jones.

You would go to bed at night and dream of someday playing as well as Jones did in his prime. Then one day you work your way up to the Major Leagues as a starting pitcher for the New York Mets and you start out strong fast balling your team to the top of the division.

Soon you're starting the game against Jones your hero and you can feel your body freeze up. This is exactly what St. Pierre was feeling the first time he battled Hughes and the result was a first round submission by way of a beautifully executed arm bar by Hughes.

The loss haunted St. Pierre for two years and it was all the Canadian thought about every day at the gym. When St. Pierre heard that Hughes was mocking him in interviews it added more fuel to the fire and St. Pierre steamrolled his next five opponents before earning a rematch with Hughes.

This time in the stare down St. Pierre looked his former idol dead in the eye with the intensity of a true warrior. The bell rang for the first round and St. Pierre came out a completely different fighter than the last time, landing swift kicks to the champion’s body and legs. In the second round St. Pierre dropped Hughes with a head kick and finished him with punches to earn the most prestigious title in MMA—the UFC Welterweight championship.

Everyone predicted a lengthy reign of dominance for St. Pierre. He was set to take on Ultimate Fighter winner Matt “The Terror” Serra in his first title defense at UFC 69. Before the fight everyone was betting on St. Pierre to destroy the Long Island native.

Nobody expected Serra to knock St. Pierre out in the first round with cannonball-like power punches but that is exactly what happened. St. Pierre may have underestimated the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu wizard but the fact remains that on that night Serra did what no other man has ever done before.

The welterweight division can blame Serra for St. Pierre’s recent reign of destruction because ever since then he has defeated all of his opponents without breaking much of a sweat including Serra in a rematch at UFC 83. St. Pierre immediately took Serra down with his overwhelming takedowns and beat The New Yorker down for two rounds from the top position to reclaim his championship.

GSP is a constantly evolving fighter. With every fight he becomes closer and closer to reaching greatest of all time status. However there are still some holes in this champion’s game.

With that said let’s take a look at the perfect game plan to defeating this Canadian wrecking machine.

Step 1: Stay on the outside and work angles

There is no question about it that St. Pierre can out-strike world class strikers and out-wrestle Olympic level wrestling champions. For this reason it’s very difficult to come up with a sound strategy for him.

The first approach, though, should be staying on the outside.

Rely on your cat-like footwork and quick explosive strikes to pick GSP apart without coming in close enough to be taken down. Work the angles of the Octagon and stick and move. Obviously this is a difficult task considering St. Pierre is a very lengthy fighter who utilizes kicks from strange angles. His long legs don’t make it any easier to avoid getting hit.

Those who are taller than St. Pierre and are known for their world class Muay Thai striking and pinpoint accuracy will have more success in following this strategy than others will. One fighter who follows that description to a tee is current UFC Middleweight champion Anderson “The Spider” Silva.

If Silva were to ever take on St. Pierre his masterful counterstriking and Roy Jones-esque footwork would come in handy as St. Pierre would not be able to catch him.

Step 2: Leg kicks, leg kicks and more leg kicks

One of the most devastating strikes in martial arts is the Muay Thai leg kick. For the majority of readers out there who don’t understand what a leg kick feels like go get a baseball bat, hand it to one of your buddies and tell him to take a swing at your leg with all of his might. That is what a properly executed leg kick should feel like. The beauty of the technique is that it can be used to weaken your opponent’s takedown accuracy.

Wrestlers drive off their lead leg when shooting in for a takedown, so if you’ve done a good job of landing powerful leg kicks to your opponent's lead leg it makes it very difficult for them to shoot in on you.

Obviously this is a risky move against St. Pierre because if you aren’t fast enough with your kicks he could catch you and take you down instantly. It’s for this reason why most fighters try to avoid kicking him . Sometimes, however, you’ve got to risk it to get the biscuit.

When Thiago Alves took on St. Pierre at the historic UFC 100 he tried to utilize strong low leg kicks but every time he would attempt the strike he was caught and taken down. Alves is known for having some of the world’s most brutal leg kicks and even he could not chop St. Pierre down with them.

Just because Alves failed with this approach, though, does not mean it cannot be done. You have to have confidence in yourself. Being unpredictable with your combinations will also help as well because St. Pierre won’t be able to time your kick.

Step 3: Put him on his back and finish with strikes

St. Pierre is the greatest wrestler in MMA. He is successful with 77 percent of his takedowns where as the average fighter is only successful 45 percent of the time. He has taken down world class wrestlers such as Matt Hughes, Josh Koscheck and Jon Fitch with relative amount of ease.

His takedown defense is just as good as his offense, just look back to the Koscheck fight for proof of that because at one point in that fight Koscheck exploded with a single leg takedown attempt and St. Pierre easily stuffed it.

Therefore, he isn’t impossible to take down. St. Pierre is most dominant when in the top position. But what happens when the tables are turned and St. Pierre is put on his back?

Well firstly getting him there is no easy task because as previously mentioned the guy is a wrestling machine but when there is a will there is way. Also if you’ve done a good job battering St. Pierre with leg kicks it should be a bit easier to take him down as his balance will be off.

Now if you do manage to secure the top position on St. Pierre you must remember he’s also a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu so it’s very crucial that you do not get careless and give up positions. Maintain the dominant position and begin reigning down strikes—preferably elbows repeatedly until either the ref pulls you off or he flips over and gives up his back. If it’s the latter sink your hooks in and secure a rear naked choke and squeeze with all of your might to force GSP into submission.

Granted all of this is easier said than done and most of St. Pierre’s previous opponents have failed miserably while attempting to execute these steps. With the way St. Pierre recently handled Alves it doesn’t seem like any welterweight will be able to put up much of a fight against the champion. Stranger things have happened however and fans need to remember that as great as St. Pierre is he is only human and just like any human he has weaknesses, they just aren’t visible to the common eye.