Fight Facts Retrospective: Georges St. Pierre
Fight Facts Retrospective is a branch of the Fight Facts series that chronicles the accomplishments and achievements of legendary fighters. Following his retirement announcement, this piece will focus on the MMA life and times of Georges St. Pierre.
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USURPER: St. Pierre became the second fighter in Ultimate Fighting Championship history to earn 20 wins, and he did so by finishing the first man to do so: Michael Bisping.
WE’RE GOING STREAKING!: Having ended his career on
a 13-fight winning streak, St. Pierre is tied with Demetrious
Johnson, Jon Jones and
Max
Holloway for the second-longest winning streak in UFC history.
Only Anderson
Silva (16) enjoyed a longer streak.
WELTERWINNER: With 19 victories at welterweight, St. Pierre is the winningest fighter in the history of the UFC’s 170-pound weight class by a wide margin, with no other welterweight celebrating more than 15 wins in the division.
THE FIRST AVENGER: Although he submitted to an armbar from Matt Hughes at UFC 50 and was knocked out by Matt Serra at UFC 69, St. Pierre avenged both of those losses in spades. St. Pierre later went on to knock out and armbar Hughes in two subsequent bouts, and he then knocked out Serra to unify the welterweight championship.
HIS HOME AND NATIVE LAND: During his career, St. Pierre competed 11 times in Canada and never lost a fight in his home country.
TWENTY POUNDS OF GOLD: When he choked Bisping unconscious at UFC 217, St. Pierre became the fourth fighter in promotional history to win belts in two different divisions. He joined Randy Couture, B.J. Penn and Conor McGregor. Since then, Daniel Cormier and Amanda Nunes have both achieved that feat.
TAKING IT TO TITLE TOWN: St. Pierre won 13 championship bouts during his career, more than any other fighter. Only Johnson (12), Silva (11) and Jones (11) have more than 10 wins in title fights.
NO PRESSURE AT ALL: By competing in 15 career title bouts, St. Pierre tied Couture for the most championship fights for a single fighter in UFC history.
KING OF THE FIVE-ROUNDERS: St. Pierre also ended his career having competed in 12 straight title fights, and he won them all. The only fighters with more consecutive title fights are Johnson (13) and Jones, who will compete in his 13th at UFC 235.
DEFENDER: After winning and unifying his belt against Serra at UFC 83, St. Pierre went on to defend his belt nine times in a row. This is the third-longest title defense streak of all-time, behind only Silva (10) and Johnson (11).
HE WENT UP TO ELEVEN: St. Pierre won his first championship in November 2006, when he knocked out Hughes at UFC 65. He went on to win another title in November 2017 by finishing Bisping, giving him an 11-year gap between winning belts -- the longest stretch of time for any UFC fighter to win another championship.
THE MAIN ATTRACTION: In 22 Octagon appearances, St. Pierre only competed on pay-per-view events. Although his first two bouts were on the preliminary cards of UFC 46 and UFC 48, he then fought on 20 consecutive main cards. With 13 total headliner slots, his last seven bouts with the promotion were all as the top billing.
COURTESY OF UFC STATS: St. Pierre landed the most strikes in UFC history (2,591), with the next highest total coming from former opponent Jon Fitch (2,184). He also landed the most takedowns in UFC history (90), with the third-highest takedown accuracy percentage of 73.8 percent.
TRULY WELL-ROUNDED: From his win over Josh Koscheck in 2007 to his battle with Jake Shields in 2011, St. Pierre won 33 consecutive rounds. The only fighter to come close to that record was Khabib Nurmagomedov, who won 31 straight before Conor McGregor took Round 3 against him in their meeting at UFC 229.
WHO SAYS HE’S BORING?: St. Pierre won seven post-fight bonuses, and all seven came in title victories. He is tied with Johnson and Silva for the most post-fight bonuses from championship bouts in UFC history.
ALWAYS A GOOD DECISION: Having won 12 bouts on the scorecards throughout his UFC tenure, St. Pierre is currently tied with Diego Sanchez for the most decision victories in company history.
THE CHAMPSLAYER: During his Ultimate Fighting Championship career, St. Pierre defeated seven UFC champions, a winner of a season of “The Ultimate Fighter,” a future World Series of Fighting-Professional Fighters League champion, two Strikeforce champions, an EliteXC champion, three World Extreme Cagefighting champions and an International Fight League champion.
‘WE’RE GOING TO GO TO THE DEATH’: In finishing Penn by corner stoppage at the end of the fourth round at UFC 94 in 2009, St. Pierre earned the sixth stoppage in Round 4 in organizational history. It remains the latest corner stoppage in UFC history.
HE HAD A BIGGER BOAT: Among his many victories and stoppages, St. Pierre was the first man to ever finish Sean Sherk. At the time, “The Muscle Shark” celebrated a record of 31-1-1, with a lone decision loss to Hughes at UFC 42.
MR. CANADA: In headlining UFC 129 against Shields, St. Pierre set the all-time North American attendance record for an MMA event, as 55,724 people packed into the Rogers Centre in 2011. In the UFC altogether, it trails only UFC 193 in Melbourne, Australia, where 56,214 people came to Etihad Stadium to watch Holly Holm knock out Ronda Rousey.
Contributing editor Jay Pettry is an attorney and a statistician. Writing about MMA since he started studying the “Eminem Curse” in 2012, and writing for Vice Sports and Combat Docket along the way, he put together many fight result and entrance music databases to better study the sport. You can find him on Twitter at @jaypettry.
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