The last time Georges St-Pierre fought outside of Canada was March 27, 2010. Following that fight, a unanimous decision over Dan Hardy, St-Pierre fought four times in Canada. All four of those fights ended in the same manner—St-Pierre holding onto his UFC welterweight title via unanimous decision. St-Pierre’s run of fights in his home country will end on November 16, when he puts his title on the line against Johny Hendricks in Las Vegas at UFC 167. It’s a move that St-Pierre is actually looking forward to.
Three of St-Pierre’s Canadian bouts took place in front of crowds at Montreal’s Bell Centre. Some would say that fighting in his home province of Quebec would be an advantage for the UFC champ, not so, said St-Pierre. “Vegas takes a lot of pressure off me,” St-Pierre told the National Post.
When asked to expand on his comment, St-Pierre pointed to his promotional role when he fights in Canada, “When I fight here, I do it in English and French, so I do twice what my opponent does. And the last one, my opponent [Nick Diaz] did nothing at all. So that will give me a little bit of a break.” Diaz no showed the open workouts for the event.
It’s a valid point. When St-Pierre spoke to the media following his UFC 158 open workout, he had four media scrums to contend with, English audio and video, and French audio and video. Most of the other fighters that took part in the open workouts had to contend with just two media scrums. Extrapolate that out over the course of fight week, and that’s a lot of time St-Pierre spent doing promotional work.
The last time St-Pierre fought in Las Vegas was UFC 100. That July 2009 bout, against Thiago Alves ended with a St-Pierre unanimous decision win. That victory began a six-fight streak of decision victories for St-Pierre. St-Pierre’s last stoppage win came at UFC 94, where BJ Penn did not answer the bell to start the fifth round. That fight took place in Vegas.
St-Pierre has fought 10 times in Vegas, winning all of those fights. St-Pierre has five decisions, three knockouts and two submissions in those bouts.
UFC 167 will take place on November 16 from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com