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Dominance of Georges St. Pierre Is in the Details -- MMA Fighting

Dominance of Georges St. Pierre Is in the Details
12/14/2010 9:20 AM ET By Mike Chiappetta

Mike Chiappetta
MMA Writer
Last Friday, the night before UFC 124, company president Dana White ran into Josh Koscheck in the host hotel, just a block away from the Bell Centre in Montreal. The two shared a few words, and during the conversation, Koscheck shared his prediction that Georges St. Pierre would refuse to strike with him during their championship fight.

The belief that St. Pierre has become a wrestling-dependent, "safe" fighter has become so widespread that even Koscheck -- before the biggest moment of his life -- felt sure it was his opponent's likeliest course of action. It turned out to be the wrong assumption. The fight spent just 68 seconds on the mat, as St. Pierre kept the action standing, where he out-struck Koscheck over five rounds, bloodying him and breaking his right orbital bone en route to a division record-tying fifth straight title defense.

While statistics don't tell the whole story, they help illuminate the fallacy of many criticisms lobbed against the UFC's welterweight champion.

1. UFC Record Streak
Middleweight champion Anderson Silva has the longest winning streak in UFC history with 12 straight victories, but St. Pierre has a historical UFC streak that's every bit as impressive: he's won 30 straight rounds. (By comparison, during his record run, Silva has dropped six of the 29 rounds he's fought.)

For St. Pierre to do what he's done against the caliber of opponents he's faced is stunning. During that time, he's faced BJ Penn, Matt Hughes, Jon Fitch, Thiago Alves and Koscheck twice, among others. It's a level of domination we've never seen before. To win a fight is one thing, but to win round after round requires preparation, concentration and execution of the highest order.

Of course, winning the fight is the ultimate objective, but winning rounds is significant, and during his 30-round stretch, St. Pierre has out-landed his opponents by a tally of 1,067-367, a mind-boggling gap of 700 strikes. He's not just beating them, he's routing them.

2. Complete Game
The big criticism of St. Pierre going into last Saturday's match is that he's too wrestling reliant. Some had their eyes opened when he and Koscheck spent 23:52 of the 25-minute fight on their feet, but the sentiment was probably wrong to begin with.

Over his last five fights, St. Pierre has had nearly perfect distribution of his strikes, throwing 682 standing strikes, and 696 ground strikes. He's complemented his game with wrestling, successfully taking down his foe on 33 of 43 tries (76.7 percent).

Meanwhile, his own defense has been outstanding. Not only is he extremely difficult to take down (Koscheck's first-round takedown against him on Saturday night was the first time GSP had been taken down in over three years), but he's very difficult to hit. His last five opponents have landed only 169 of 540 standing strikes against him (31.2 percent).

Go back further and it's nearly as impressive. His last eight opponents have landed just 32 percent of standing strikes. His last 13 have landed 38 percent. So he's actually gotten better against better competition.

Finally, over his last 13 fights, he's spent 99:05 standing, and 85:03 on the ground, laying to rest the claim he won't stand with people. The truth is, they just can't hit him.

3. Fighting the Best Competition
Detractors might point out that many historical champions have finished at a higher rate than St. Pierre, but how many have faced tougher competition than him?

Fitch was on a 17-fight unbeaten stretch and hadn't been finished since 2002. Hardy had won 12 of 13, with his only loss coming via DQ. Alves had won 9 of 10, with his only loss coming to the aforementioned Fitch. Penn is a future Hall of Famer. Including Koscheck's 6-2 stretch before facing St. Pierre, his last five opponents were a combined 50-6 just before facing him. That's a combined winning percentage of .893 he's absolutely blown away.

Compare that with Silva. The longest win streak of an opponent about to face him was Rich Franklin, who had won eight in a row prior to their first meeting in 2006. Since the start of 2008, the longest win streak an opponent brought into a match with Silva was five, done by both Patrick Cote and Thales Leites, two guys who were out of the UFC within two years of fighting him. Since 2006, four of Silva's ex-opponents (Cote, Leites, James Irvin and Travis Lutter) have been released by the UFC. Since that time, not a single one of GSP's former opponents has been released. Not one. So who's really fighting the better competition?

So, to recap, GSP:

• Won 30 straight rounds, a UFC record
• Won five straight welterweight title defenses, tying a UFC record for the division
• Has 8 straight wins, tied for the second longest streak in UFC history
• During 30-round streak, out-landed opponents, 1,067-367
• Shutout five opponents who had gone 50-6 before facing him
• Was successful on 33 of last 43 takedown attempts

Style is a matter of personal taste, so in the end, the only real criticism detractors have about St. Pierre is that he's not a classic finisher. His recent stretch of three straight decisions, though, is the longest of his career. That's not exactly a drought. Other contemporaries who are considered "finishers" like BJ Penn, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and even Chuck Liddell have had streaks that long.

Translated, the complaint is that St. Pierre is a finesse fighter in a world of power. But our sport is complex enough that his style should be celebrated instead of denigrated. Football had Barry Sanders, baseball had Greg Maddux, hockey had Wayne Gretzky, MMA has Georges St. Pierre.

Fans craving for violence may not appreciate him, but that doesn't change the fact that in many ways, St. Pierre is the sport's most complete mixed martial artist, and may one day be considered the greatest of all time.

[Eds. Note: All statistics culled from Compustrike research]

[vegas bushido]

All 100% correct but in 15 minutes there are going to be about 10 people calling this writer and idiot for whatever reason. Clock starts...now.

[v3xi]

Originally Posted by vegas bushido

All 100% correct but in 15 minutes there are going to be about 10 people calling this writer and idiot for whatever reason. Clock starts...now.

The "real" argument seems to be dominance vs finishing fights. I don't think finishing fights means shit other than if you take the opponent out fast you risk the least amount of damage to yourself and extend your healthy MMA career in the process. It is and always will be about winning. GSP does this in a 25 minute fight, on the mat or standing up with almost no risk to himself. Completely ridiculous. I have him #2 behind Fedor.

[end it with a left]

sorry took me more than fifteen min to read it... its tough to read fast when you're high. Great article, its awesome to see numbers like that without actually having to do the work. I might be interpreting this wrong right now cause I don't know if this might be out of the 10 fights but Thiago also lost to Spencer Fisher, wouldn't have even said anything but vegas inspired me to.

[vegas bushido]

Originally Posted by end it with a left

sorry took me more than fifteen min to read it... its tough to read fast when you're high. Great article, its awesome to see numbers like that without actually having to do the work. I might be interpreting this wrong right now cause I don't know if this might be out of the 10 fights but Thiago also lost to Spencer Fisher, wouldn't have even said anything but vegas inspired me to.

I don't think Thiago did.

[macewen]

its easy to sit back and watch and say, he is dominant....but holy fuck, those stats are really amazing...

[diction10]

I said it during the fight that the amazing thing about watching GSP is how he makes all of his opponents look like terrible fighters, when in fact they are the best of the best. He is amazing.

[The Return Of......]

Originally Posted by vegas bushido

I don't think Thiago did.

yes, thiago alves lost to spencer fisher early in his ufc career. i believe it was by a triangle but i am too lazy to look it up

ok i looked it up anyway. i am correct by triangle. it was back in 2005 at ultimate fight night 2

[SimpleJack]

I'm pretty sure that Silva's going undefeated in title fights and finishing all but 3 of his opponents in his UFC career trumps "winning rounds."

I'm not saying that GSP isn't completely dominating everyone he faces. I'm saying that he has been finished twice and Silva has not. Further, GSP has fought opponents from lower weight classes whereas Silva has faced opponents from above his.

[v3xi]

Originally Posted by DonFrye

I'm pretty sure that Silva's going undefeated in title fights and finishing all but 3 of his opponents in his UFC career trumps "winning rounds."

I'm not saying that GSP isn't completely dominating everyone he faces. I'm saying that he has been finished twice and Silva has not. Further, GSP has fought opponents from lower weight classes whereas Silva has faced opponents from above his.

Yeah! Because James Irvine is a more impressive win then BJ Penn. What the fuck kind of comment is this?

Silva refuses rematches to people who are a threat, he dances around like a fucking moron, he will get destroyed by any good wrestler with mediocre striking skills if his little manager mommy lets him. GSP has no weaknesses, his loss against Serra was because of a big shot to the back of the head and he crushes opponents in rematches worse than the first fights.

Come to think of it, Anderson hasn't even fought a good striker until his upcoming fight. GSP fought way harder opponents in a much deeper division.