As questions still swirl around UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre’s future, fighters and analysts are wondering out loud whether or not the French-Canadian legend should hang up the gloves for good.
Based on Monday morning’s appearance …
As questions still swirl around UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre’s future, fighters and analysts are wondering out loud whether or not the French-Canadian legend should hang up the gloves for good.
Based on Monday morning’s appearance on The Opie & Anthony Show, UFC color commentator Joe Rogan believes GSP‘s time inside the Octagon has run its course (transcription via MMA Fighting).
“I think Georges should retire,” Rogan stated. “One of the reasons I think Georges should retire is he was on my podcast and he was talking about being abducted by aliens. I was going, ‘you think you’ve been abducted by aliens?’ He starts talking about missing time. He started talking about driving his car and all of a sudden he’s at home and he has no idea [how] he got there. I think it’s head kicks … That fight he had some serious memory loss (at UFC 167). I think he’s taken too many shots. An interesting statistic is that Georges has taken more punches and kicks in the last three fights than any of his fights, ever. In fact, 50% of the shots he’s taken his entire career were in the last three fights. I think he should get out. I know the UFC probably doesn’t want to hear me say that. I know that could be a huge rematch.”
Furthermore, Rogan added that the UFC “should just give Johny Hendricks” the belt since he was the rightful victor Saturday night.
After his 12th win in a row, “Rush” told Rogan inside the Octagon that he wanted to take some time off to deal with some personal issues, though UFC president Dana White insisted at the post-fight conference that GSP vs. Hendricks II would go off without a hitch, per Mike Chiappetta of Fox Sports.
That led to widespread speculation about what was going on with the dominant champion behind the scenes—that is, until TMZ released a report stating that an unplanned pregnancy and his father’s impending death was weighing on St Pierre’s mind.
GSP currently has nine consecutive title defenses to his credit, behind only long-time UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva (10).
If he were to retire today, the 32-year-old would be a shoo-in UFC Hall of Famer, boasting an incredible 19-2 mark inside the Octagon and avenging both of those losses.
Is it really time for St-Pierre to call it a career, or does he just need a little time off to clear his head before he continues to reign supreme atop the UFC’s 170-pound division?
John Heinis is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA Editor for eDraft.com.
There have been many terrible decisions handed out by MMA judges over the years, but none of them had the same consequences as the decision read by UFC ring announcer Bruce Buffer following the main event of UFC 167 this past weekend.
After five rounds of back-and-forth action, Johny Hendricks and Georges St-Pierre headed to the scorecards to hear the official outcome of their fight, which should have been in the bag for the challenger. Watching the fight live, I scored it 48-47 for Hendricks, giving him rounds one, two and four, and St-Pierre rounds three and five, all rounds scored 10-9. My friend and fellow journalist James Lynch, whose judgment I trust and who I watched the event with, tallied the same score on his card. So did all 15 media members who had their scores counted by the great database MMADecisions.com. So did most fans and observers of the sport on Twitter and in the arena. So did UFC color commentator Joe Rogan. And so did UFC president Dana White.
Despite this, two Nevada State Athletic Commission judges inexplicitly scored the fight for St-Pierre by scores of 48-47, and the champion got to keep his belt. He then announced to the audience at MGM Grand Garden Arena that he wanted to take some time off after defending his belt for the third time in the past 12 months.
There have been many terrible decisions handed out by MMA judges over the years, but none of them had the same consequences as the decision read by UFC ring announcer Bruce Buffer following the main event of UFC 167 this past weekend.
After five rounds of back-and-forth action, Johny Hendricks and Georges St-Pierre headed to the scorecards to hear the official outcome of their fight, which should have been in the bag for the challenger. Watching the fight live, I scored it 48-47 for Hendricks, giving him rounds one, two and four, and St-Pierre rounds three and five, all rounds scored 10-9. My friend and fellow journalist James Lynch, whose judgment I trust and who I watched the event with, tallied the same score on his card. So did all 15 media members who had their scores counted by the great database MMADecisions.com. So did most fans and observers of the sport on Twitter and in the arena. So did UFC color commentator Joe Rogan. And so did UFC president Dana White.
Despite this, two Nevada State Athletic Commission judges inexplicitly scored the fight for St-Pierre by scores of 48-47, and the champion got to keep his belt. He then announced to the audience at MGM Grand Garden Arena that he wanted to take some time off after defending his belt for the third time in the past 12 months.
Hendricks, on the other hand, got screwed.
I thought all five rounds were clear. Round one was Hendricks’ because he was the more effective striker and grappler. Round two was Hendricks’ because he rocked GSP and displayed more effective striking overall. Round three was GSP’s because he outlanded Hendricks by nearly twice the amount of strikes. Round four was Hendricks’ because he was the more effective striker once again. And the fifth and final round belonged to GSP, who made a late comeback highlighted by two successful takedowns.
For some reason, though, it seems that there is some disagreement with the first round. Although I thought it was clearly Hendricks’ round when I watched it live, two judges — Tony Weeks and Sal D’Amato — gave it to St-Pierre, and it ended up being the round that swung the split-decision verdict in his favor.
24 hours after the fight, I re-watched it, hoping that I was wrong and that the first round was closer than I remembered. And as I watched those first five minutes unfold, I could only sit there and shake my head in disbelief that two professional judges could score the round for St-Pierre. Hendricks won the first round, no doubt about it.
In the first few minutes of round one, St-Pierre landed some nice strikes and a takedown. He then attempted a submission while Hendricks was standing up, but wasn’t able to lock it in. In the Unified Rules of MMA, submission attempts aren’t scored by the judges. Effective grappling is, but having an arm around someone’s neck for a few seconds isn’t effective at all. And neither was that takedown that GSP landed early in the round, because Hendricks used his butterfly guard to get back up almost immediately.
What was effective, however, were the big elbows Hendricks landed to the side of GSP’s head while the champion tried to take him down against the side of the cage. Look at UFC matchmaker Joe Silva’s reaction outside the cage at that moment — he knew those hurt. Then Hendricks got a takedown of his own. Then he landed a bunch of big knees to GSP’s body. And while St-Pierre landed a few nice kicks on Hendricks, the challenger landed a bunch of hard punches at the end of the round, putting an exclamation mark on it and winning a competitive, but at the same time clear, 10-9 round.
Or at least most people thought he did did. Viewing Twitter, there were a few fans who gave St-Pierre the first round 10-9, but they were in the minority (about 10-20% of people I would say, but they are fans and I bet most have never actually read the rulebook). Still, mostly everyone gave round one to 10-9 Hendricks. But two of the judges did not, and at the end of the day that’s the only thing that matters in this sport.
I’ve seen a lot of people say that the first round was close in their minds and therefore the round should be scored in the champion’s favor. So listen up, jackasses: There is NOTHING in the Unified Rules that says, “To be the champ you have to decisively beat the champ.” It’s made-up logic by people who don’t know how to properly score a competitive round. In a mixed martial arts fight, the only thing that matters is who won the round and who lost it. The belt is completely irrelevant and should never be taken into consideration when judging fights.
I am bothered by the decision the judges made, but I am more bothered by the reaction of the MMA community to the decision. When the president of the UFC, 95 percent of professional fighters, 95 percent of the media, and most fans scored the fight for Hendricks, I’m sorry, but that’s a robbery. If this wasn’t a robbery, then someone please tell me what is.
Monday morning on Twitter, a follower told me to move on and to stop flooding his timeline with talk about the decision because “bad decisions happen. It’s a part of the sport.” But this is such flawed logic in so many ways. If we can’t discuss the judging in the sport in a civil manner on a public forum it will never improve. If we keep letting the judges get away with screwing up, and let them off with not even a slap on the wrist every time, the sport will never evolve. And we will keep getting bad decisions where someone who deserved to win gets screwed.
When there are discussions about the worst decisions in UFC history, there are usually a few usual suspects that are brought up. Michael Bisping vs. Matt Hamill at UFC 75. Lyoto Machida vs. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua at UFC 104. Nam Phan vs. Leonard Garcia at the TUF 12 Finale. Frankie Edgar vs. Benson Henderson at UFC 150. Henderson vs. Gilbert Melendez at UFC on FOX 7. The were all horrible decisions, and it’s hard to say that Hendricks vs. St-Pierre was worse than any of them. They’re all about on par, because in each case the wrong man got his hand raised. That’s why I can’t say that Hendricks vs. GSP is the worst decision in UFC history.
But out of all the bad decisions handed down in UFC history, St-Pierre vs. Hendricks is the most important because the stakes were the highest and because it featured the biggest star in the sport on the sport’s biggest stage, the main event of the UFC’s 20th-anniversary pay-per-view card. And because of two bad judges, Hendricks was robbed of the chance to wear a belt he deserved to win. This wasn’t St-Pierre’s fault, and he shouldn’t be blamed for the judges’ incompetence, but at the same time I don’t consider him the best welterweight in the world anymore, even though he still gets to wear the belt around his waist.
I’m hopeful that because of the high-profile nature of this fight that everyone in the MMA community can take a step back and look at the judging in the sport and realize that it’s actually gotten worse in the 20 years since the sport began. That’s a huge problem if we want the sport to succeed going forward.
Hopefully this is the moment where we all open our eyes to a huge problem that has been plaguing the sport for years. We need to have an open forum to try and fix this problem. Maybe that means the scoring system must change. Maybe we need to go back to PRIDE rules. Maybe damage has to be added to the criteria. I don’t know what the solution is, but I want to find one. And so should all of us, instead of just brushing it off to the side. Because it’s wrong and it’s hurting the sport.
Until anything changes, though, we are stuck with the 10-point must system. The system isn’t perfect, but for the most part it works, because under the current system one judge, nearly every media member and the president of the UFC was able to still crown Hendricks as the rightful winner. No, it’s not the system that’s the biggest problem, it’s the judges who are applying the scores incorrectly that is the problem.
I know that judging MMA fights isn’t easy and that the judges in this sport never get any credit for the job they do. But they chose to do the job, and they should do it right. And at UFC 167, they failed at it. But it won’t hurt any of them at all. Most likely, they will all keep their jobs and there will be no ramifications. In actuality, the only person it hurts is Hendricks. And it’s not fair. It’s not right, and we need to change things. How we can do that, though, is a difficult question to answer. But hopefully we can answer it sooner than later before this sport goes right to hell. That is, if it’s not down there already.
UFC 167 sparked a ferocious debate: Who really won the night’s main event?
Did Georges St-Pierre retain his welterweight title, or did Johny Hendricks do enough to steal the gold hardware from around GSP’s waist?
Fans and critics backing He…
UFC 167 sparked a ferocious debate: Who really won the night’s main event?
Did Georges St-Pierre retain his welterweight title, or did Johny Hendricks do enough to steal the gold hardware from around GSP‘s waist?
Fans and critics backing Hendricks repeatedly pointed to the welterweight champion’s busted mug, saying “Look how busted up he is, and look at our guy! Who do you think won?”
This argument does not hold any weight under the unified scoring rules, and it apparently does not fly with the Nevada State Athletic Commission, either.
Hendricks, who looked relatively unscathed after his five-round affair with GSP, earned a six-month medical suspension unless cleared by an orthopedist for his right knee, while GSP can get back to work in just 45 days.
Now, who won the fight? (I kid, I kid.)
Gian Villante and Ali Bagautinov, both winners on the evening, also earned six-month suspensions for hand and foot injuries, respectively.
Georges St-Pierre: suspended until 1/1/14 with no contact until 12/17/13
Johny Hendricks: suspended until 5/17/14 unless cleared by orthopedist for right knee, and suspended until 12/17/13 with no contact until 12/8/13
ChaelSonnen: suspended until 1/1/14 with no contact until 12/17/13
Rory MacDonald: suspended until 12/17/13 with no contact until 12/8/13
Josh Koscheck: suspended until 1/1/14 with no contact until 12/17/13
Ali Bagautinov: suspended until 5/17/14 unless cleared by orthopedist for left foot, and suspended until 12/17/13 with no contact until 12/8/13
Evan Dunham: suspended until 1/1/14 with no contact until 12/17/13 for left eyebrow laceration
Rick Story: suspended until 1/1/14 with no contact until 12/17/13 for left eyebrow laceration
Erik Perez: suspended until 12/17/13 with no contact until 12/8/13 for laceration on bridge of nose
Gian Villante: suspended until 5/17/14 unless cleared by orthopedist for both hands
Cody Donovan: suspended until 5/17/14 unless cleared via X-ray by orthopedist for right hand, and suspended until 12/17/13 with no contact until 12/8/13
On the heels of one of the most highly contested and controversial championship fights in UFC history, much speculation remains as to what’s next for champion Georges St-Pierre and Johny Hendricks.
Their five-round war this past Saturday at UFC 167 was…
On the heels of one of the most highly contested and controversial championship fights in UFC history, much speculation remains as to what’s next for champion Georges St-Pierre and Johny Hendricks.
Their five-round war this past Saturday at UFC 167 was truly back and forth, but the majority of the MMA community gave the nod to the challenger. However, two of the three Las Vegas judges scored the fight for GSP, stretching his consecutive title defense streak to nine.
The outcome left much to the imagination as to what Hendricks did wrong to lose a bout he seemingly secured. Either way, the heavy-handed Texan left it in the judges hands and that’s one of the worst things you can do with today’s skewed scoring system.
This was not the first time a UFC title fight produced these types of results. Earlier this year, light heavyweight phenom Jon Jones narrowly escaped a mauling by No. 1 contender Alexander Gustafsson. It was so close and such a surprising performance that every post-fight reaction centered around a potential rematch.
Unfortunately for the Swede, Glover Teixeira was waiting in the wings.
But what made things worse this time around for Hendricks and the millions of fans who went to bed unsatisfied, is the fact that St-Pierre sullied any chance of an immediate rematch when he unexpectedly took time off.
However, in a promotion fueled by the always persuasive Dana White , the pound-for-pound king may not be sidelined for too long.
As a matter of fact, White came to Hendricks rescue at UFC 167’s post-fight press conference and explained how he deserves another shot at the title, while Gustafsson ultimately did not.
“The situation was different with that one because Jon said, ‘I already beat him. Now I want to fight Glover Teixeira,” said White, which was originally reported by MMA Fighting. “He goes, ‘I’ll give him the rematch after.’ Jon had this plan where he wanted to beat another contender and then he’d do the rematch. I respected that.”
“Who’s Georges going to fight?” added White. “He already fought Condit. Johny deserves this rematch. Every fight is different. You can’t look at other situations and go, ‘but in this fight…’ Every fight is different. Johny Hendricks deserves this rematch.”
You can’t blame White for pushing for a rematch between GSP and Hendricks. Not only for the fact that “Bigg Rigg” arguably did enough to capture the title the first time around, but also due to the stacks of cash that would fall from the sky if a second meeting was booked for 2014.
In any case, a rematch obviously hinges on St-Pierre’s return. He must work out his personal problems before running into Hendricks’ left hand for a second-straight time.
Check out the numbers below, and keep in mind that they don’t include additional revenue from sponsorships or undisclosed “locker room bonuses,” or deductions for taxes, insurance, and license fees.
Georges St-Pierre: $450,000 (no win bonus, includes $50,000 Fight of the Night bonus)
def. Johny Hendricks: $100,000 (includes $50,000 Fight of the Night bonus)
Check out the numbers below, and keep in mind that they don’t include additional revenue from sponsorships or undisclosed “locker room bonuses,” or deductions for taxes, insurance, and license fees.
Georges St-Pierre: $450,000 (no win bonus, includes $50,000 Fight of the Night bonus)
def. Johny Hendricks: $100,000 (includes $50,000 Fight of the Night bonus)
Underpaid: I was kind of surprised to see that Sergio Pettis is being paid like any other eight-and-eight rookie. Not that he deserves more money simply because he’s the lightweight champion’s brother, but I figured his hype would have earned him a slightly bigger contract. Also, Thales Leites has had ten fights in the Octagon and once fought for the middleweight title…and he’s still only making $10,000 to show. Jesus Christ. And yeah, Johny Hendricks just had a $50,000 win bonus and untold future endorsement revenue stolen from him by the judges, but we’ve probably bitched about that enough already.
Overpaid: Nobody, really. I wouldn’t have guessed that Tyron Woodley makes over $50k to show, but hell, everybody at his level should be making that kind of money.
On the heels of one of the most highly contested and controversial championship fights in UFC history, much speculation remains as to what’s next for champion Georges St-Pierre and Johny Hendricks.
