UFC 83 Preview: Georges St. Pierre, Matt Serra Do it Again

The Georges St. Pierre/Matt Serra rematch is set for April 19, 2008 at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

It has been just over a year (April 7, 2007) since the first fight, which resulted in Serra being crowned the UFC Welterweight Champion.

Serra shocked the world with his TKO of St. Pierre just three minutes and 25 seconds into the first round.

The victory is widely considered to be the biggest upset in UFC history.

Matt Serra has not fought since. He was scheduled to defend his title at UFC 79 against Matt Hughes, but was forced to pull out of the fight with a herniated disc in his lower back.

St. Pierre, on the other hand, won a unanimous decision over Josh Koscheck. He then fought, and won, the UFC Interim Welterweight Championship by submitting Matt Hughes via arm bar.

Matt “The Terror” Serra is the current UFC Welterweight Champion—an MMA veteran with a 9-4 record.

Serra’s biggest strength is his ground game. He is a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and a former Pan Am gold medalist. He has won four of his nine fights by submission.

Serra also has heavy hands for someone relatively small in stature, just 5-foot 6-inches tall. (Just ask St. Pierre.)

Georges “Rush” St. Pierre is the current Interim UFC Welterweight Champion.

He has a professional MMA record of 15-2, and is widely considered to be one of the top pound-for-pound MMA fighters in the world, along with Quinton Jackson, Fedor Emelianenko, and Anderson Silva.

St. Pierre has a rare combination of accuracy, speed, and power. He is a dynamic striker on his feet, using a combination of body kicks, stiff jabs, and the occasional superman punch.

He has also beaten a who’s-who list of MMA fighters including Sean Sherk (former UFC Lightweight Champion), B.J. Penn (current UFC Lightweight Champion, former UFC Welterweight Champion), and Matt Hughes twice (former two-time UFC Welterweight Champion).

St. Pierre,a Quebec native, will be fighting on his home turf in Montreal. The entire crowd should be on his side.

He might finally be reaching his full potential, evident by his domination of Hughes and Koscheck in his last two fights.

He excelled striking on his feet, in the clinch, and on the ground. He was able to keep distance on his feet and slowly pick them apart via a combination of punches and leg strikes.

When Koscheck and Hughes were able to get inside his range and clinch, or shoot for a takedown, St. Pierre displayed an extremely improved wrestling game and takedown defense.

Wrestling was once seen as a weakness of St. Pierre, but that is no longer the case. He essentially outwrestled two of the best in Koscheck and Hughes, who are both former college All-American wrestlers.

I see the fight going a lot differently this time around.

I believe Serra knocking out St. Pierre the first time was a fluke.

Serra’s TKO of St. Pierre was the first victory by TKO that Serra has had in his entire MMA career.

Serra needs his fights to go to the ground to finish his opponent via submission. He will not be able to take St. Pierre down and keep him down.

In fact, I don’t expect St. Pierre to be taken down at all. St. Pierre will win via knockout on his feet.

I also do not expect this fight to go longer than two rounds.

Serra will have only a puncher’s chance to win, much like the first fight, but don’t expect lighting to strike in the same spot twice.