If Ronda Rousey hoped to get a rise out of Georges St-Pierre, she picked the wrong UFC champ.
At the press conference for UFC 158, St-Pierre responded to Rousey‘s comments pertaining to him being a “boring champion” who gets by on good looks.
“It’s very flattering for her to say that I’m a good looking guy, and I want to say she’s a very beautiful woman as well. I feel very flattered.”
While Rousey respects St-Pierre as an athlete, she hasn’t shied away from criticizing his performances inside the Octagon.
In an old interview with BestofMMA.com, she called him a point fighter who has worn out his welcome in the sport.
“I think that fighters that just try to win by points and come away with a win are actually bad for the sport. If you never saw MMA before, and you walked in and you saw GSP and Koscheck, and all this jabbing out the whole time, it looks like a boring boxing match. I don’t think you gain any fans with a fight like that.
GSP was good for the sport for a while. He brought in some big sponsors like Gatorade and Under Armour, but I think he’s done everything he can in a positive way and he needs to step aside and let Nick Diaz kick his ass.”
It’s hard to disagree with Rousey on St-Pierre’s inability to finish fights. His last five title defenses have all ended in lopsided unanimous decisions.
Outside of fighters, no one else is really complaining about St-Pierre’s performances. According to UFC President Dana White, St-Pierre remains by far the biggest draw in the UFC. It isn’t like he’s intentionally dragging fights out for five rounds.
Guys like Carlos Condit, Jake Shields and Josh Koscheck aren’t easy to beat, much less finish.
Despite her disdain for his fighting style, Rousey believes there is one thing she has in common with St-Pierre. She thinks they are both treated as sex symbols, to some degree, by media and fans.
The reigning welterweight champ’s popularity amongst female fans has even led to comparisons to international soccer star, David Beckham.
Rousey strikes a similar chord with male fans. One look at her Twitter page tells the entire story.
In a recent interview with the Las-Vegas Review Journal, Rousey said all of St-Pierre’s popularity stems from him being Canadian and a good looking guy.
“Everybody keeps coming up to me and saying, ‘Oh, do you think if you didn’t look such a way, people would like you so much?’ I’m like, ‘Dude, if GSP was butt ugly, you wouldn’t want to know who he is so much.’
I think he lucked out a lot that he’s Canadian. I love Canadians. They are the coolest, nicest, most patriotic people, and they will support their countrymen no matter what, and I think that’s commendable. But if GSP wasn’t really good-looking, and really Canadian, he would be really unknown.”
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