Georges St-Pierre is to MMA like Sidney Crosby is to hockey or Kobe Bryant is to basketball. He is just on a whole different level.Georges St-Pierre winning Sportnet's 2008 Athlete of the Year is not only an incredible achievement for the sport of MMA, but for GSP himself; just another chapter in what will surely be a UFC Hall of Fame career.
I remember Georges' debut and thinking to myself how impressive he was against UFC veteran Ivan Mengivar. He then proceeded to defeat one of my training partners at the time, Justin Bruckmann to win his first title, in what was only his second pro MMA bout. After his brutal victory over Pride veteran Travis Galbraith in his third fight, it was his fourth pro fight when it hit me; GSP was something truly special and I was witnessing something legendary unfold right before my eyes.
When GSP was originally matched up against Thomas 'The Wildman' Denny, I vividly recall voting down this match-up as I thought Georges was over-matched. Denny was 10-9 and had fought some big names coming into this bout. He had quite the name for himself and I just felt Georges wasn't ready for such a big challenge so early on in his career. How wrong I was.
Georges proceeded to dismantle Denny and crush the veteran en route to a TKO victory in the second round. The turning point for me was GSP's double leg entry in the first round as well as all of his takedowns and ground control. I thought to myself "this guy is on another level". He was simply too much for a fighter I had high regards for. It was like Georges was the veteran and Denny was the younger fighter. It not only opened my eyes to how good GSP was but it was a defining moment in my own MMA career as I was watching the birth of a legend less than five feet from where I was sitting.
Georges continued to develop his game and just got better and better. It wasn't like he was making baby steps in his development; he was making drastic improvements to his striking game, his takedown and throws, as well as his positional control on the ground. He would take control of the fight and never let his opponent catch up. Georges would start in fifth gear and never ease off the gas pedal.
Georges has set the standard for what 'rhythm' is in an MMA fight. His pace is relentless and often gets the better of his opponents as they just cannot keep up. They eventually begin to slow down giving Georges the opening he uses to finish the fight. Whether it's a left high kick to the head, or a left hook to set up a takedown, he is ruthless until he gets what he wants in the fight. As it stands right now, he is part of a select group of MMA fighters that are the gold standard and what the future of MMA will look like.
I often get asked to debate the merits of MMA fighters and whether or not they are true athletes. In all of my arguments, I bring up GSP. Here's a guy who trains with pro level boxers, not just your average recreational athlete at a boxing gym. He trains with Canada's Wrestling Team, not the local high school or college team. He travels to Brazil to work on his Jiu-Jitsu game; in essence, he is always training and sparring with world class, single discipline athletes. He does all of this because he is a multi-combat sport athlete and in order to achieve and maintain his level of dominance, he has to be exceptional at all levels of MMA, both offensively and defensively.
Right now, there are only a handful of MMA fighters that are on a true elite level. I am talking about fighters who can win by knockout, who can take the fight to the ground at will and can submit their opponent in the blink of an eye. There's Fedor Emelianenko, Anderson Silva, BJ Penn and Georges St-Pierre.
GSP, along with the aforementioned champions are ahead of their time. They are what the next generation of fighter will look like. They are great at all disciplines, are difficult to defeat and can win a bout at any given point in time. They can out box their opponent, they have exceptional takedown defence and if they choose, will take their opponent down to finish the fight with some ground and pound or a submission. They are the gold standard and are the living blueprint of what will be in years to come.
2008 may have been the year of GSP, but in 2009, he may just take it to a whole other level. Should GSP go undefeated in 2009, he will reach superstar status greater than what Chuck Liddell, Tito Ortiz and Randy Couture did in their careers. On tap for GSP right now is a super-fight with BJ Penn in January, followed by a mandatory title defence against #1 contender Thiago Alves and then the unbelievable. Should he go undefeated against the latter, UFC President Dana White has publicly stated that a super-fight with Anderson Silva would follow suit.
If the stars align and this super-fight between GSP and Silva were to actually take place, and should Georges be victorious in that bout, I cannot begin to imagine how monstrous his worth would actually be to the UFC marketing machine. Add to all of this the fact that he has signed on with the CAA Talent Agency and we may not only see a repeat next year, but a true pop icon born in 2009.
Taken from: Sportsnet.ca
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