Isn’t it enough that Georges St. Pierre is the most dominant welterweight in MMA history not named Matt Hughes?
Obviously not, because some UFC fans think he’s boring.
For those people, it’s pretty easy to put “GSP” and “boring” in the same sentence. Often pointing out St. Pierre’s five lopsided decision wins in his last six fights, some fans assume that the champion isn’t always working for the finish, content to safely and efficiently control overmatched challengers.
But have all those fights really been as lackluster as fans say?
Before the Jon Fitch bout, I didn’t think the human body could survive a 25-minute bludgeoning. GSP‘s super fight with B.J. Penn was equally impressive, showcasing how a solid game plan can fantastically dismantle an equally elite opponent.
Even in the Dan Hardy fight, where the mouthy Brit was dramatically oversold by the UFC as a dangerous knockout artist, the challenger showed an exciting amount of grit, gutting out multiple kimura locks and incredibly deep armbar attempts to last through all five rounds.
But even with such stellar performances, GSP is telling his unimpressed fans that he’s taking their complaints to heart, promising to “take more risks” in future fights:
“There is a saying in English that you don’t repair something that is not broken. Sometimes I believe you have to break it yourself to repair it, to make it better. Because the sport of mixed martial arts will evolve. If I stay at the same level, they will catch up to me. I need to evolve, to stay ahead of game. The critics are always there. I listen to the critics. I’m very critical on myself. I want to make more finishes myself. I want to be more exciting, take more risks, be more opportunistic. I’ve been working on that a lot.”
It’s admirable for St. Pierre to recognize and admit that his stellar MMA game could probably use another slight tune-up if he’s going to stay the champion. After all, the longer an opponent is in the fight, the more chance you have of losing in an upset.
But is taking more risks in the Octagon the right path for GSP?
Now that more heavy hitters and brawlers have clawed their way up the welterweight chain—Carlos Condit, Martin Kampmann and Johnny Hendricks, to be precise—I can’t imagine a more dangerous thing for the champ than standing and slugging it out with those monstrous athletes.
If GSP possessed an iron chin or one-punch knockout power, this would be a very different story.
Unfortunately, out of all the skills you can develop in MMA, tough chins and heavy hands are two things that you just “have” or don’t have. It’s what separates a tactician like St. Pierre from knockout artists like Jose Aldo or Anderson Silva.
Hopefully, the peer pressure hasn’t gotten to GSP too much. If he can find a way to rack up more finishes at 31 years old, more power to him.
But at the same time, I hope that when the champion does eventually lose his belt, he’s defeated by a legitimately better welterweight, and not someone who got lucky and “caught” him with a haymaker.
[McKinley Noble is an MMA conspiracy theorist. His work has appeared in EGM, GamePro, 1UP, Macworld, & PC World. Follow him on Twitter for more fight talk.]
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