MMA: A Look At The Career of Georges St. Pierre (So Far)

Georges St. Pierre is hailed as the most complete fighter in MMA.

He is considered to be in the Top 2 Pound-for-Pound fighters in just about every rankings list and is set to enter his 10th career UFC Championship fight.

St. Pierre has become not just the UFC's biggest star in Canada but the face of mixed martial arts globally.

Let's take a trip back to 2002 and see how this kid rose from the streets of Saint-Isidore to the pinnacle of his sport.

Top Prospect

St. Pierre became involved in martial arts, learning Kyokushin Karate at the age of seven to defend himself against a bully.

As he grew up he trained in wrestling, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and kickboxing. In his late teens he participated in amateur MMA fights.

In 2002, St. Pierre went pro in small promotions located in Quebec and rattled off 5 straight wins (highlights of those fights in the video).

It did not take a great MMA eye to see that this young fighter had a huge amount of talent. Amazing athletic gifts, very refined technique for how young he was and a very aggressive top position game that overwhelmed his opponents,

GSP’s star was on the rise.

UFC Debut

UFC 46 is one of the classic "Super Cards" in UFC history.

It featured two title bouts; Randy Couture's first successful Light Heavyweight title defense against Vitor Belfort caused by a glanced punch from Belfort and Welterweight champion Matt Hughes' loss to B.J. Penn in arguably the Hawaiian’s greatest win.

On the undercard, the UFC matched up two Welterweight prospects, the debuting Georges St. Pierre and Karo Parisyan, coming off his first UFC win.

At this time Parisyan was a dynamic fighter at the height of his Judo prowess. Shortly after the fight Parisyan would take time off from MMA to enter the 2004 Olympic trails in Judo.

St. Pierre defeated Parisyan via decision, despite a very close kimura attempt by Parisyan.

Six months later at UFC 48, St. Pierre returned to the Octagon to TKO Jay Heiron on the undercard to improve his UFC record to 2-0.

His win was so impressive, there was talk about stepping up his level of competition.

Rising Too Far, Too Fast

In October of St. Pierre's first year in the UFC he was given a fight against former Welterweight Champion Matt Hughes for the vacated UFC Championship.

In just his eighth pro fight, GSP was faced with the greatest Welterweight of the early 2000s.

The challenge proved too much for St. Pierre as Matt Hughes easily locked in an armbar in the closing seconds of the first round and reclaimed his Welterweight title.

It was St. Pierre's first professional loss.

Road Back to Contention

In early 2005, after his loss to Hughes, St. Pierre left the UFC and crushed Dave Strasser at a local Canadian show in less than two minutes.

After his impressive bounce back victory the UFC brought GSP back for the main card of UFC 52, which featured Chuck Liddell vs Randy Couture II and Matt Hughes vs Frank Trigg II.

St. Pierre was matched with the larger than life, skilled fighter Jason 'Mayhem' Miller.

Georges dominated Miller on the feet and earned a solid decision, and then was matched with Frank Trigg, who had just lost to Matt Hughes.

It took St. Pierre only four mintues before locking in a rear naked choke on Trigg.

Finally, GSP dominated Sean Sherk at UFC 56 with a convincing TKO win in the second round.

A Rivalry Is Born

On the main card of UFC 50: USA vs Canada, St. Pierre was matched with former UFC Welterweight Champion B.J. Penn.

The fight stole the show and gave birth to a rivalry that would define the careers of both fighters.

In the first round Penn punished St. Pierre with his boxing, breaking St. Pierre's nose and opening a cut under his right eye.

St. Pierre was visibly dazed and admits that in the first round he became afraid of Penn.

When the first round ended, St. Pierre collected himself and showed great heart as he came out to dominate the second and third rounds with his wrestling.

St. Pierre won a controversial split decision, and many B.J. Penn fans to this day will Penn should have won the fight.

Penn and the fans left the fight with a feeling that this contest had yet to be decided.

GSP earned a title shot with the win, but an injury forced him to postpone his title shot, allowing Penn to step-in for a rematch with Matt Hughes.

And New UFC Welterweight Champion...

On November 18th, 2006 Georges St. Pierre was given a rematch with the only man to hand him a professional loss, Matt Hughes.

By this point Matt Hughes was in his 11th UFC title match and was the owner of an impressive 41-4 record, including his recent domination of B.J. Penn.

St. Pierre used his wrestling to keep the fight on the feet and forced the Champion to stay on his feet and strike.

GSP linked together combos and when Hughes tried to close the distance St. Pierre punished him with knees to the body.

At the start of the second round St. Pierre landed a lightning quick head kick that rocked Hughes. Georges followed Hughes down to the ground and pounded him to a stoppage.

St. Pierre avenged his only loss and now was on top of the Welterweight world, poised for a long reign as champion.

Shocked

Matt Serra had just won the fourth season of "Ultimate Fighter", a season full of UFC veterans who were promised a title shot if they won. 

Serra defeated Chris Lytle in a forgettable split decision finale and very little was thought of his chances against the new champion.

St. Pierre was riding high on his TKO victory over Matt Hughes and took his training lightly; not seeing Serra as much of a threat.

Serra entered the Octagon in April 2007 as one of the biggest underdogs ever in a UFC Championship.

About half way through the first round, Serra landed a looping hook that staggered the champion and landed a right hand that sent GSP stumbling.

Serra poured on the punches until Pierre fell to the canvas against the cage. Serra leapt into mount and began raining down punches.

When "Big" John McCarthy didn't stop the action, GSP reached over and tapped the canvas to stop the punches.

It is still considered the single biggest upset in MMA history and that tap-out still casts a shadow over St. Pierre's career to this very day.

It represents the one moment of mental weakness that all his future opponents would look to exploit.

The Road Back To The Top

St. Pierre collected himself very quickly after his failure to defend his title and blamed a lack of focus for his defeat.

He wanted to get back in the cage quickly and the UFC granted his wish, giving him an August match-up with Josh Koscheck.

It was a must-win match for St. Pierre if he wanted to stay in title contention.

And he rose to the moment.

Shocking MMA pundits the world over, he was able to out-wrestle the NCAA Champion Koscheck and win a convincing 29-28 decision.

After the victory, the UFC granted Matt Hughes a rubber match against St. Pierre.

Their rivalry came full circle as GSP locked in a nasty armbar on Hughes in the second round, returning the submission loss Georges suffered in their first match.

Payback

Just over one year after his shocking upset over St. Pierre, Serra had yet to defend his title due to a coaching stint on the Ultimate Fighter and an injury.

Coming into the fight many cautiously favored St. Pierre, questioning his mental strength, chin and will to be champion.

Serra had no problem sharing his thoughts on the challenger, taking every chance he had to smear GSP.

But when the cage door closed, St. Pierre subjected Serra to one of the most brutal two round beatings MMA had seen.

Georges picked Serra's feet apart, putting him on his back and applying brutal ground and pound. The fight mercifully stopped when Serra rolled to the turtle position and GSP rained knees to his body.

St. Pierre was again champion and this time had no intention of allowing himself to lose focus.

Duel Of Champions

St. Pierre followed his destruction of Matt Serra with a dominating performance over top contender Jon Fitch.

While St. Pierre had been working to regain his title, B.J. Penn had rattled off three straight wins in the UFC Lightweight division and had gained the Lightweight title.

With GSP coming off his win over Fitch and Penn and a TKO of Sean Sherk, both divisions lacked a clear contender to challenge their champions.

The UFC talked to Penn and for the first time a UFC Champion would move up in weight to challenge another champion.

It was promoted as the single biggest UFC event in 2009.

The rematch between two fighters that had decided nothing in their first fight—except that they didn't care for each other.

Questions still hung over St. Pierre for his tapping against Serra and Penn insisted he would break GSP's will.

But when they met it was St. Pierre that broke Penn.

GSP kept a frantic pace, taking Penn down, slicing through his legendary guard and punishing him for four straight rounds.

At the end of the fourth, Penn's conditioning finally gave out and his corner threw in the towel.

This fight defined both fighters.

Penn's inconsistency has only gotten worse; at times looking like the greatest fighter in the UFC and others look simply disinterested with fighting.

GSP went on to become more dominant.

The Quintessential Champion

After his victory over Penn, St. Pierre has become the ideal champion.

Outstanding wrestling, strong striking and a Gracie-Barra Black Belt in Jiu Jitsu making GSP the most well rounded fighter in MMA today.

He has faced criticism for being too cautious since his loss to Serra, but has also favored using his dominating top position to defeat challengers as opposed to using his striking ability.

But one can't argue with his results.

After being the feature of UFC 94 against Penn, St. Perre also headlined the biggest show in MMA history, UFC 100.

There he dominated Thiago Alves despite tearing his groin during the third round.

St. Pierre then became the subject of the first episode of "UFC Primetime", a countdown show, for his title defense against the talkative Dan Hardy.

Georges came off as a very mature, focused champion and followed it up with a dominating performance over Hardy.

St. Pierre took Hardy down with ease and on several occasions locked in arm locks that came very close to breaking Hardy's arm or dislocating his shoulder.

Hardy proved to be made of stern, and flexible, stuff. Hardy refused to tap, his limbs refused to snap and GSP had to settle for a resounding decision victory.

Team GSP

In late 2010 St. Pierre became a part of the biggest single marketing push the UFC can provide to a fighter, "The Ultimate Fighter".

He was to coach against his next contender, the TUF veteran Josh Koscheck, in a rematch of their 2007 tussle.

St. Pierre again came off as a calm, mature champion and a very able coach. His team dominated the tournament, earning three of the four semifinal spots.

This has just been one sign of St. Pierre's rising celebrity.

He has done commercials with Sportscenter on ESPN, made product deals with Under Armor and given invites to major celebrity events.

An icon in his home nation of Canada, St. Pierre is further breaking down the barrier between MMA and the mainstream media.

UFC 124

This Saturday, St. Pierre will face another career-defining moment.

He enters the cage against a more polished Josh Koscheck than the one he defeated in 2007. Koscheck is motivated and hungry for the rematch and the first title shot in his career.

If St. Pierre is to win the Strikeforce Welterweight, Middleweight Champion Jake Shields awaits and then the future of the Welterweight division is uncertain.

Two more wins for GSP could see him move to another "Superfight" at the Middleweight class against Anderson Silva or matches with the rising crop of Welterweights.

But it all starts with Koscheck, so be sure to catch the fight anyway you can!