#1
(UFC Champion)
Summary: Athleticism, very well rounded, discipline
Fighter Info
Nickname: | Rush |
From: | Montreal, Quebec Canada |
Age: | 29 |
Height: | 5' 11" ( 180 cm ) |
Weight: | 170 lb ( 77 kg ) |
St-Pierre made his UFC debut at UFC 46, where he defeated Karo Parisyan by unanimous decision. His next fight in the UFC was against Jay Hieron at UFC 48. St-Pierre defeated Hieron via technical knockout in only 1:42 of the first round.Following his second win in the UFC, he faced Matt Hughes at UFC 50 for the vacant UFC Welterweight Championship. Despite a competitive performance against the much more experienced fighter, St-Pierre tapped out to an armbar with only 1 second remaining in the first round.[22] The loss was the first of St-Pierre's career and he has since admitted that he was in awe of Hughes going into the title bout.
After his loss to Matt Hughes, St-Pierre rebounded with a win over Dave Strasser at TKO 19 by a first-round kimura submission.[23] He then returned to the UFC to face Jason Miller at UFC 52, defeating Miller by unanimous decision in a bloody battle.[24]
St-Pierre was then matched up against top contender Frank Trigg at UFC 54. St-Pierre controlled the fight and eventually snuck in a rear naked choke with less than a minute remaining in the first round.[25] He then faced future lightweight champion Sean Sherk at UFC 56. Midway through the second round, St-Pierre became the second fighter to defeat Sherk and the first to finish him.[26]
At UFC 58, St-Pierre defeated former UFC welterweight champion B.J. Penn to become the number-one contender for the UFC welterweight title. St-Pierre won the match by split decision and was set for a rematch against then-champion Matt Hughes at UFC 63. St-Pierre was forced to withdraw from the match, however, due to a groin injury and was replaced by the man he defeated in March, B.J. Penn.[27] The UFC announced afterward that St-Pierre would have the opportunity to fight for the title when his condition was fully healed.
St-Pierre was seen as a trainer on The Ultimate Fighter 4: The Comeback on Spike TV, which featured fighters who were previously seen in UFC events including Matt Serra, Shonie Carter, Pete Sell, Patrick Côté, and Travis Lutter. St-Pierre was seen vocally supporting fellow Canadian and training partner Patrick Côté during the season's airing.
At UFC 63, St-Pierre made an appearance to support fellow Canadian David "The Crow" Loiseau. At that time he was seen pushing Loiseau to "fight his fight" against Mike Swick. At the same event, after Matt Hughes had defeated B.J. Penn, St-Pierre stepped into the ring to hype up his upcoming title fight against Hughes, stating that he was glad that Hughes won his fight, but that he was "not impressed" by Hughes' performance.[29]
According to both commentator Joe Rogan and Hughes' own autobiography, Hughes was unhappy with St-Pierre's statement. Hughes said that they "had words" off-camera shortly after, at which time St-Pierre apologized, saying he had misunderstood something Hughes had said on the microphone and did not mean to offend him. St-Pierre challenged Matt Hughes again at UFC 65 for the UFC Welterweight Championship. The fight was almost stopped near the end of the first round when St-Pierre sent Hughes to the mat with a superman punch and left hook, but Hughes managed to survive the first round. In the second round, St-Pierre won the fight via technical knockout after a left kick to Hughes' head followed by a barrage of unanswered punches and elbows.. After the fight, on January 30, 2007, St-Pierre signed a new six-fight deal with the UFC
At UFC 69, St-Pierre lost the welterweight title to The Ultimate Fighter 4 winner Matt Serra when he defeated St-Pierre by TKO at 3:25 of round one. Matt Serra was an 11–1 underdog going into the bout.[31] St-Pierre has said that he lost the match partially due to a lack of focus because of problems in his personal life, including the death of a close cousin and his father's serious illness,[32] and later parted ways with his manager and most of his entourage. St-Pierre has since gone on to say that he should not have made any excuses and that Serra was simply the better fighter that night.
On August 25, 2007, at UFC 74 St-Pierre won a unanimous decision against Josh Koscheck (30–27, 29–28, 29–28).[34] He outwrestled Koscheck, who is a four-time Division I NCAA All-American and an NCAA wrestling champion, by scoring takedowns, stopping Koscheck's takedown attempts and maintaining top position throughout most of the fight.[35] Many predicted that Koscheck would outmatch St-Pierre on the ground due to his credentials, but St-Pierre was confident that he was a better wrestler and striker and was more well-versed in submissions than Koscheck.[36]
Before and after the fight, St-Pierre stated his intention to reclaim his lost title, miming the act of placing a championship belt around his waist while still in the octagon. His win over Koscheck had placed him in the number-one contender spot for the UFC Welterweight Championship. That fight was to be against the winner of Matt Hughes and Matt Serra. Matt Serra had to pull out of UFC 79 due to a back injury sustained during training,[37] and instead St-Pierre faced Hughes in a rubber match for the interim UFC Welterweight Championship. Hughes was unable to mount any serious offense against St-Pierre, who again showcased his wrestling skills by not only avoiding all of Hughes' takedown attempts, but also taking Hughes down at will.[38] In a reversal of their first fight, St-Pierre attempted a kimura on Hughes' right arm,[39] then switched to a straight armbar with fifteen seconds left in the second round. Hughes fought the extension, but was forced to verbally submit at 4:55 of the second round,[40] making St-Pierre the interim Welterweight Champion.
At UFC 83 on April 19, 2008, St-Pierre fought Matt Serra to determine the undisputed UFC welterweight champion. It was the UFC's first event in Canada and was held at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Québec.[41] Instead of starting with strikes, St-Pierre pressed the action early with a takedown and then mixed up his attack, which never allowed Serra the chance to mount a significant offense.[42] In the second round, St-Pierre continued his previous actions and forced Serra into the turtle position and delivered several knees to Serra's midsection.[43] Near the end of round two, the fight was stopped by referee Yves Lavigne with Serra unable to defend himself from St-Pierre's continuous knee blows or improve his position.
St-Pierre's first title defense since winning the belt back was against Jon Fitch at UFC 87. Fitch was on a 16-fight winning streak; a victory against St-Pierre would have been Fitch's ninth consecutive UFC win, a new UFC record. St-Pierre defeated Jon Fitch by unanimous decision with scores of 50–43, 50–44, and 50–44,[44] to retain his UFC welterweight title. He dominated Fitch, scoring multiple devastating strikes and taking the former Purdue wrestling captain down seemingly at will.
The win over Fitch set up one of the most anticipated rematches in UFC history, as BJ Penn stepped into the octagon after the fight to essentially challenge St-Pierre to a rematch of their bout at UFC 58 in 2006, which ended in a split-decision victory for St-Pierre. The rematch occurred on January 31, 2009, at UFC 94. The first round of the fight was somewhat even, with Penn exercising elusive head movement, fast hands and good take-down defense, thwarting all of St-Pierre's take-down attempts while both exchanged punches. In the ensuing three rounds, however, Penn turned out a lackluster performance. St-Pierre scored his first take-down of the night midway through the second round and by the end of the round Penn was visibly tired. At the start of round three, St-Pierre landed a superman punch that bloodied Penn's nose and shortly took Penn down again. From that point on, St-Pierre took Penn down almost at will, repeatedly passed Penn's renowned guard and persistently punished the Hawaiian with a ground-and-pound attack.[45]
Penn later admitted that he could not recall anything that happened during the 3rd and 4th rounds because "I was probably borderline knocked out or something."[46] At the end of the fourth round, after more of St-Pierre's ground-and-pound onslaught, Penn's corner man Jason Parillo requested that the referee stop the fight. Penn failed to attend the post-fight press conference due to having stayed in the hospital. During the fight, Penn complained that St-Pierre was too slippery to hold, which led to suspicion about petroleum jelly being illegally applied to St-Pierre's back. The matter was formally investigated by the UFC and Nevada State Athletic Commission upon the request of the Penn camp.[47] Upon investigation, all claims were dismissed as false and warranted no disciplinary action or further investigation.
Prior to UFC 100, Beau Dure of USA Today stated that St-Pierre was possibly "the best in the world."[48] At the event, St-Pierre defeated number-one contender Thiago Alves. Alves showed promise on his feet standing up in the fight, but St-Pierre's wrestling offensive, endurance and ground control proved too much for the challenger and put St-Pierre en route to a unanimous decision victory, despite suffering a pulled groin muscle in the third round. While St-Pierre said in his post fight interview that the injury was sustained in the third round, he later said on his blog that the injury in fact occurred in the fourth round.[49] On July 18, 2009, it was revealed that St-Pierre's groin injury would not require surgery.[50]
A scheduled bout between Mike Swick and Martin Kampmann would have determined the number-one contender for the UFC Welterweight Championship. In early September, Swick pulled out of the fight due to an injury, effectively cancelling the title elimination aspect of the fight. After Martin Kampmann lost to Paul Daley at UFC 103, a fight between Swick and Dan Hardy was announced for UFC 105, with the winner, Dan Hardy, earning number-one contendership for St-Pierre's title.[51]
St-Pierre successfully defended his welterweight title against Dan Hardy on March 27, 2010 at UFC 111 which took place in Newark, NJ. [52] St-Pierre dominated the fight with his wrestling. He caught Hardy in the first round with an armbar, but Hardy refused to tap and eventually fought out of the hold. In the fourth round St-Pierre caught Hardy in a kimura while in the reverse-mount position, but Hardy once again refused to tap and St-Pierre released the hold before causing any serious damage. St-Pierre went on to win the fight by unanimous decision (50-43, 50-44 and 50-45).[53][54] After the fight, he stated that he was glad to win but was not impressed by his performance, stating that he wanted to finish the fight. He also gave credit to Hardy for his toughness.[55]
St-Pierre's next fight was a rematch against Josh Koscheck at UFC 124, where he won by unanimous decision (50-45, 50-45, 50-45).[56][57] St-Pierre once again dominated the fight, this time relying on superior striking, utilizing accurate boxing. He landed a total of 55 jabs to Koschecks head.[58] Joe Rogan stated it was "the most jabs I've ever seen in an MMA fight." During the first round, Koschecks right eye became very swollen from one of St-Pierre's jabs. By the end of the fight, his right eye was completely swollen shut and suffered a broken orbital bone. St-Pierre stated at the post-fight conference that he wanted to catch Koscheck off-guard by striking with him instead of wrestling.[59]
UFC president Dana White stated that Jake Shields would be St-Pierre's next opponent and confirmed that the two would meet in the main event of UFC 129 on April 30, 2011, in Toronto.[60] White had said that if St-Pierre defeated Shields, it could mark a move to middleweight and a superfight against Anderson Silva.[61] St-Pierre defeated Shields via unanimous decision in a heavily panned performance.[citation needed]
At the UFC 129 post-fight press conference, UFC President Dana White stated that next for St-Pierre could in fact be a super fight with Strikeforce Welterweight champion Nick Diaz. "I've got to go talk him about boxing first, and then we'll see what happens there. It's an interesting fight," White said. "I was there live for that last fight and I was blown away by Nick Diaz’s last fight. He looked incredible." [62]
St-Pierre received a 60-day medical suspension following his UFC 129 fight with Shields due to damage to his left eye.[63] St-Pierre's trainer, Firas Zahabi, just two days after the fight, however, said that doctors had examined St-Pierre and declared that his eye didn't suffer any serious damage and he should be able to resume training after 10 days.
