UFC 129 Results: Ranking George St-Pierre's Best Championship Fights
UFC welterweight champion George "Rush" St-Pierre picked up another win this evening after out-boxing and out-working the former EliteXC and Strikeforce champion Jake Shields over five rounds. It was his seventh defense of the belt in a row.
Shields was on a 15-fight win streak over some of the very best in the welterweight and middleweight divisions. After making his UFC debut last October, he was thrust into a title shot against one of the pound-for-pound best fighters.
It was supposed to be the toughest fight of St-Pierre's career, and even if the scorecards mirrored that, it was a one-sided fight throughout.
Where does it rank among the best of St-Pierre's title fights?
No. 8 Dan Hardy
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Dan Hardy may have been the least likely of the fighters on this list to defeat Georges St-Pierre, but he did promote a very good fight.
After a three-part primetime series showed the fighters' perspectives on the upcoming bout and gave some inside into their personal lives, the show was set for UFC 111.
It was five rounds of easy wrestling for St-Pierre, who out-grappled his opponent for the majority of the bout with several submission attempts.
Dana White said it best after the fight when he said, "St-Pierre made Hardy look good." This is the problem with many of his fights, but that's more of a compliment to show how good we really think the Canadian star is.
No. 7 Josh Koscheck II
2 of 8
In what is easily St-Pierre's greatest display of the jab and boxing skills inside the Octagon, the Canadian superstar defeated his rival, Josh Koscheck, for the second time at UFC 124.
The fight was promoted through the Ultimate Fighter Season 12, which saw a calm and humble St.-Pierre take vocal blow after blow as Koscheck tried to sway him from being anything but mad and wanting to take it out on him during the fight.
Before a massive audience of 23,152 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, St-Pierre won a five-round unanimous decision.
No. 6 Jake Shields
3 of 8
In a rather uneventual five-round battle with Jake Shields, St-Pierre put on another boxing clinic but didn't look as impressive as many were hoping he would.
Shields came into the bout knowing he only had one way to win this fight and so did St-Pierre. Still, he couldn't manage to stop the Gracie jiu-jitsu ace and even gave away two rounds according to two of the three official cageside scorers.
It does rank as a significant win in his career because Shields was on a 15-fight win streak, but just out-boxing Shields in his weakest area isn't enough to make it one of his greatest.
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No. 5 Thiago Alves
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It was the toughest and biggest fight of his career up to that point and was set to take place at the biggest event in MMA history—UFC 100.
His opponent was dangerous muay thai fighter Thiago Alves. Alves was on a seven-fight win streak, including wins over Matt Hughes, Josh Koscheck, Chris Lytle and Karo Parisyan.
The talk going into the fight was could St-Pierre take the bigger fighter down? Alves was beginning to make a name for himself as one of the hardest fighters to take down.
St-Pierre did more than just take his opponent down. He also outmatched Alves in kickboxing and won a dominant five-round unanimous decision.
No. 4 B.J. Penn
5 of 8
Making St-Pierre quit seemed to be BJ Penn's goal leading up to this super-fight set to take place at UFC 94. He was confident it would happen and made sure people knew by repeating it throughout interviews. St-Pierre said nothing of the kind and stayed quiet as usual.
Their first fight was close, and the second one was thought to be even closer. After a Primetime countdown show over three weeks, the most anticipated UFC fight finally took place.
Penn's takedown defense got him through the first round untouched, but didn't work for very long. St-Pierre got him down in Round 2 and put a beating on the former welterweight champion for three rounds, before Penn's corner threw in the towel before Round 5.
This fight may be more significant, and could possibly be St-Pierre's greatest moment, but complaints from Penn about St-Pierre using an illegal jelly, which was applied to his back in between rounds, keeps it from being that.
No. 3 Matt Hughes II
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After defeating five opponents in a row and coming off a close spit-decision win over BJ Penn at UFC 58, St-Pierre was ready for another title shot against the dominant welterweight champion.
After the fight was scheduled for UFC 63, St-Pierre pulled out and BJ Penn stepped in to take on the champion. Hughes did what Pierre couldn't do, and stopped the Hawaiian in the third round.
When the second fight was finally set between the two, nobody saw what was coming. Takedown attempts by Hughes proved to be ineffective, and St-Pierre attacked with kicks and punches, winning in the second round after landing a head kick.
No. 2 Matt Serra II
7 of 8
It was one of the biggest upsets in MMA history when welterweight contender Matt Serra knocked out the newly crowned champion, Georges St-Pierre, at UFC 69 in 2007.
It didn't take long before St-Pierre got back into action and defeated Josh Koscheck and Matt Hughes during that same year. Fans could see his style had changed, and the loss to Serra would prove to be a factor in how he approached his future opponents. St-Pierre called his loss the "greatest thing" to ever happen to him.
The rematch was set for April 19, 2008 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada and would take place in front of 21,390 fans.
St-Pierre overwhelmed his trash-talking opponent for two dominant rounds before earning a second-round stoppage and being crowned the UFC welterweight champion once again—a title that he still keeps to this day.
No. 1 Jon Fitch
8 of 8
Looking back on it, this fight grows in significance every time Fitch fights. With a 13-1-1 record inside the Octagon, Fitch is easily the second-best welterweight fighter in the world, with his only loss being to the welterweight champion.
He is waiting for his second shot at St-Pierre, but their first fight warranted none after he dominated the tough wrestler over five rounds. Besides being a "Fight of the Year" candidate, it was all St-Pierre. He took Fitch down and dropped him with a right hand in a great fight that was still one-sided.
Fitch's post-fight face told the story of the fight, and it shows why St-Pierre does more damage than many people think.
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