Filed under: UFC
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.