Call it the “GSP Factor.”
Back in the heydey of Canadian mixed martial arts (MMA) in Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), Georges St-Pierre was setting attendance and pay-per-view records, bringing events to Toronto and Montreal to watch the welterweight champion defend his belt in front of capacity crowds.
St-Pierre packed Bell Centre in Montreal with 20,145 fans screaming “Ole, ole, ole” for UFC 158 against Nick Diaz. Just as when he drew 21,390 people to Montreal at UFC 83 to reclaim his belt from Matt Serra. And Montreal could never forget the 23,153 people he brought in to see a masterful jab ostensibly break Josh Koscheck’s face.
But they all pale in comparison to the 55,724 people in Toronto who turned up at SkyDome (Rogers Center) to watch “Rush” defend against Jake Shields.
There’s no two ways about it. St-Pierre was a Canadian cash cow for UFC, long before anybody had ever heard of an Irish king. He was Rogers Sportsnet Canadian Athlete of the Year three years in a row and Sports Illustrated Fighter of the Year in 2009.
And then it all came falling down with the break retirement of one of the most heralded heroes in Canadian sports history.
Since then the UFC has been steadily on the decline in Canada. Despite announcing three cards north of the border this year, it would be wise not to hold your breath. Not only are ticket sales weak in Canada, the dollar is an abysmal 69 cents to the greenback.
The UFC planned three to five shows in Canada in 2015 but only two came to fruition — UFC 186 in Montreal in April and a televised card in Saskatoon in August.
In 2014, the UFC announced a five-city schedule for Canada with pay-per-views shows in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver and Fight Night cards in Halifax and Quebec City. But UFC 178 was shifted to Las Vegas from Toronto and the Montreal card was cancelled outright.
Saskatoon only drew 7,202 ticket buyers for the 15,195-seat SaskTel Centre at UFC Fight Night 74 on Aug. 23, 2015.
One of the pioneers of Canadian MMA, Patrick Cote, fought on that card against Josh Burkman. He spoke with Damon Martin of FOX Sports about the dearth of Canadian prospects to bring more cards to venues in Canada in the future.
“The province of Quebec was a Mecca of mixed martial arts in Canada. We were producing a lot of good fighters,” Cote said. “All those guys who had success in the UFC, they fought in Quebec. Mark Hominick, Sam Stout, me, David Louiseau, Georges (St-Pierre) and now it’s hard. We still have a lot of good guys coming up. We’ve got Olivier Aubin-Mercier, Elias Theodorou, Chad Laprise, those guys are good but they are already in the UFC. Developing those new kids, it’s hard in Canada right now.”
All but Cote remains from that original list. And only Aubin-Mercier from the list of new Canucks is on a winning streak.
Even the best fighter currently representing Canada’s nationalistic hopes, Rory MacDonald, fell short against Robbie Lawler at UFC 189.
Cote says it’s not UFC’s fault for the “shallow talent pool.” That’s on Canada.
“It’s hard to develop young guys because we don’t have any serious organizations to develop those kids,” Cote said. “Before there were a couple of organizations and you were able to fight around the country and put some wins on our records and show that what we are able to do. Now it’s very, very hard. We don’t have any serious organization to build the next generation. That’s the biggest problem here.”
Cote has a chance to make Canadians cheer again tomorrow (Jan. 17, 2016) when he takes on Ben Saunders at UFC Fight Night 81 in Boston. But one win certainly isn’t going to turn the tide for Canadian MMA.
Only one man can do that. But if he’s planning an imminent comeback he’s not saying. For now.