Looks like UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre and Sportsnet’s Perry Lefko won’t be exchanging gifts this holiday season.
Lefko’s annual year-end list of the top 10 most overrated athletes included the French-Canadian kingpin.
As is often the case with GSP critics, Lefko ripped GSP for not fighting safe and not finishing opponents.
“Ultimate Fighting Championship president Dana White said in December 2011 that St-Pierre is still the most popular athlete in Canada in terms of his international recognition — we’re not so sure about that — but the welterweight champion is sidelined indefinitely with damaged knee ligaments. And even before his injury, St-Pierre was taking verbal shots from the public, the media and fighters for his inability to put away opponents.”
Those who watched the dominant champion’s last title defense against Jake Shields at UFC 129 had to be disappointed, as the bout degenerated into a lackluster kickboxing match after GSP was the recipient of an inadvertent eye poke by his Octagon adversary.
However, Lefko didn’t just criticize the quality of the fight though, he also questioned St-Pierre’s toughness.
“He grabbed the international spotlight in April for headlining the first UFC card in Toronto, producing GSP mania. A record UFC crowd of more than 55,000 packed the Rogers Centre to finally see the conquering Canadian hero and he went the full five rounds with Jake Shields in what was more of a clinic on how not to lose a fight than actually win it.
Yes, GSP had problems seeing out of one eye because of a shot in the fight, but we’ve seen fighters with far bigger issues turn it up a notch. It was boring at best and continued a pattern of St-Pierre going the full distance without delivering the knockout blow or submission. Heck, the fight before it on the card was way more entertaining than the main event.”
The 170-pound superstar has only lost twice in 24 career fights and he avenged those two losses to Matt Serra and Matt Hughes.
However, despite an impressive resume as far as career wins goes, St-Pierre has not had a traditional finish since his TKO win over Serra at UFC 82 for the UFC welterweight title.
Since then, the champion has rattled off six wins, one of which was a TKO corner stoppage of B.J. Penn, but the other five bouts were won via unanimous decision.
“Rush” will be on the shelf until approximately September of 2012 due to a serious ACL injury, once again postponing a heavily anticipated matchup with former Strikeforce welterweight title-holder Nick Diaz.
In GSP’s absence, Diaz will fight Condit for the UFC interim welterweight belt at UFC 143, set to take place on Feb. 4th.
Other athletes who made the list include professional golfer Tiger Woods (and his caddy Steve Williams), the New Jersey Nets’ Kris Humphries, LeBron James of the Miami Heat and Denver Broncos starting quarterback Tim Tebow.
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