UFC 129: Georges St-Pierre Appears on ESPN's Sports Science

In yet another move by the UFC to hype up the heavily anticipated UFC 129 main event of Georges St-Pierre taking on Jake Shields, the welterweight champion made an appearance on ESPN’s Sports Science.

This writer feels that it would really be a mistake to not watch the three minute clip from the show posted below, but pointing out some highlights will give readers an idea of just how much of a force GSP truly is.

The first statistic of interest came when St-Pierre performed a VO2 max test.  This revealed that GSP’s anaerobic threshold, the process that makes lactic acid and causes athletes to fatigue, is 15 percent more efficient than most fighters.

While the exact details were not revealed, Sports Science host John Brenkus explained that “when most fighter’s hit their ceiling (maximum threshold), GSP is at 85 percent of his max.”

Next, the Canadian welterweight title holder is strapped with a wireless accelerometer to measure how powerful his strikes are.

Amazingly, GSP is able to generate 2,859 pounds of force with a punch, 3,377 pounds of force with a kick, and a punch/kick combo registered over 6,000 pounds of force….and that’s in less than one second’s time!

St-Pierre’s punch managed to generate more power than light heavyweight Mauricio “Shogun” Rua (2,749 pounds of force) and heavyweight champ Cain Velasquez (2,230 pounds of force).

To measure speed, GSP worked takedowns on a grappling dummy.  The force from GSP’s shoulders and hips generated a whopping 2,400 watts of power, and executed the takedown in a measly 1.17 seconds.

Brenkus put things into perceptive when he noted that former light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans had identical statistics when performing the same test. 

Quite an incredible revelation when one considers that St-Pierre is 35 pounds lighter than Evans.

Finally, GSP performed one of his signature moves, the Superman punch, on the heavy bag. 

The champion’s superman punch moves at 15 feet per second, twice as fast as his normal punch, so it’s no wonder that this move has become a regular in St-Pierre’s repertoire. 

Thanks to YouTube and ESPN for providing the video, as well as BloodyElbow.com for highlighting some key statistics.