UFC 124 Results: At What Point Does GSP Need To Finish?

For almost 25 minutes last Saturday night, Josh Koscheck’s right eye was swollen completely shut.

And for almost 25 minutes last Saturday night, Georges St. Pierre failed to finish an inferior opponent who he had broken in the first minute of the fight.

St. Pierre is widely considered one of the best fighters on the planet, and I even declared him the best fighter alive in an article yesterday, but if his goal is to retire as the greatest mixed martial artist of all time, shouldn’t he be running through people like Tyson in his prime?

The short answer to this question: Yes.

I’ve consistently defended “Rush” for his lack of finishes, citing everything from tough opponents (Fitch, Koscheck), mid fight injuries (Alves) and even rubber limbs (Hardy).

Yet, if Georges wants to be considered the greatest of all time, he needs to start ending fights on his own terms.

St. Pierre is in desperate need of a finish. He has won an unprecedented 30 straight rounds, but half of those have been in his last three fights.

To be known as the greatest, you must make every opponent look like he doesn’t belong in the same cage as yourself. You have to go out and destroy every challenge that is put in front of you and make the thought of anyone being able to defeat you laughable.

Winning decisions just doesn’t strike fear into the hearts of future opponents.

Thiago Alves was considered to be a viable threat to “King Georges” crown, yet St. Pierre used his wrestling to hold down the Muay Thai specialist and proceeded to grind out a unanimous decision.

Most assumed he would take out Dan Hardy in under three rounds, yet Georges couldn’t (or wouldn’t) finish the job.

He locked in two very tight submissions, but when Hardy refused to tap, it seemed like GSP lacked the killer instinct to finish the fight. Yet another 50-45 decision for the champion.

Then the UFC hype machine told us we would see an angry aggressive GSP against Josh Koscheck, one who was determined to finish an opponent who had been trash talking for months.

Instead, we got the usual tactical assassin, jabbing his way to a dominant yet predictably unanimous decision victory.

His next fight against Jake Shields may be the most important of his career. Shields possesses little stand up ability and while he has a notoriously crafty ground game, St. Pierre should be able to keep the fight standing with ease.

The match up is tailor made for GSP to score his first TKO stoppage since his rematch with Matt Serra all the way back at UFC 83.

While I still consider St. Pierre to be the best fighter on the planet, his legacy will take a huge hit if he is unable to finish Jake Shields, and it may ultimately cost him his goal of becoming the greatest fighter of all time.