Somewhere out there, Johny Hendricks is probably still scratching his beard wondering exactly what in the hell happened on Saturday night.
The top welterweight contender exited UFC 167 on the losing end of a controversial split decision to UFC champ Ge…
Somewhere out there, Johny Hendricks is probably still scratching his beard wondering exactly what in the hell happened on Saturday night.
The top welterweight contender exited UFC 167 on the losing end of a controversial split decision to UFC champ Georges St-Pierre.
At the post-fight press conference, Hendricks, who didn’t have a single scratch on his face, looked flat out confused and irritated that he could still lose a fight without taking any damage. Meanwhile, St-Pierre’s face looked worse than Sylvester Stallone’s after fighting Ivan Drago in Rocky 4.
Many predicted Hendricks would be a handful for St-Pierre, but most of that bravado came from the fact that Hendricks’ left hand brandished just about as much knockout power as Thor’s hammer. Not many expected him to actually go the distance with St-Pierre and win on points.
After the bout, St-Pierre announced in his post-fight interview that he would be stepping away from MMA indefinitely to take care of some personal problems. During the post-fight media scrum, via MMA H.E.A.T.’s Karyn Bryant, UFC President Dana White claimed that St-Pierre’s personal problems weren’t that big of a deal, and he foresaw the champ returning to action soon.
Banking on White’s gut feeling, it would be surprising if an immediate rematch between St-Pierre and Hendricks isn’t next up.
If he draws Hendricks for a second time, what does St-Pierre need to do differently to ensure a more convincing outcome?
Perhaps the most interesting stat in the entire fight was St-Pierre only attempting one takedown in the open, which ended up being his best takedown of the night.
St-Pierre has this way of staying on the outside and utilizing his jab and kicks to frustrate opponents into coming forward. As soon as St-Pierre senses the pocket closing, he usually changes levels and shoots in for a takedown.
This technique worked to perfection early in the bout against Hendricks, who stormed forward looking for the knockout.
But after that sequence, St-Pierre resorted to attempting to out-point Hendricks on their feet and desperately seeking takedowns from the clinch against the cage. A stark contrast between Hendricks and other wrestlers St-Pierre has faced in the past is the incredible strength possessed by the former Oklahoma State Cowboy.
There were several times during the fight when Hendricks literally lifted St-Pierre off his feet to reverse to a more dominant position in the clinch.
Despite the obvious strength advantage, St-Pierre continued to engage Hendricks at a close distance instead of in the open, where he could have utilized his speed and footwork to be more offensive.
With minds like Greg Jackson, FirasZahabi and John Danaher in St-Pierre’s corner, this will most likely be a point of emphasis in his next training camp. As long as St-Pierre stays on the outside, he should be able to out-land Hendricks on the feet and setup more takedowns.
If things go according to plan, maybe next time the world won’t act so surprised when Bruce Buffer calls St-Pierre’s name at the end of a fight.
UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre won a hotly contested split decision against Johny Hendricks at UFC 167 on Saturday, and now no one knows for sure what’s next for the French-Canadian superstar.
GSP told UFC color commentator Joe Rogan…
UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre won a hotly contested split decision against Johny Hendricks at UFC 167 on Saturday, and now no one knows for sure what’s next for the French-Canadian superstar.
GSP told UFC color commentator Joe Rogan in his post-fight interview that he needed to “hang up my gloves for a little bit” to take care of some personal issues that neither he nor UFC President Dana White cared to elaborate on, per FOX Sports.
Now, TMZ Sports has allegedly identified the issues the Tristar Gym standout is dealing with: an unplanned pregnancy and his father’s impending death.
“Now, sources familiar with the situation tell TMZ Sports … Georges’ dad is dying and it’s derailed him. And there’s this … GSP recently learned he knocked up a woman—and he doesn’t want to have a baby with her but she insists on keeping it.”
The article does not provide any further details on either potentially life-altering situation.
UPDATE: Monday, Nov. 18 at 3:57 p.m. ET
Canadian media outlet La Presse is reporting (translation via Bloody Elbow) that Georges St-Pierre’s younger sister, Myriam St-Pierre, has denied the claim that their father is terminally ill.
“My father is doing very well,” Myriam St-Pierre is quoted as saying, adding that the notion of her father being sick is false.
—End of update—
Original Text
Worth noting is that St-Pierre is 32 years old and has never been married before, so an issue like infidelity is a non-factor, should the report of an unplanned pregnancy turn out to be true.
White said at the UFC 167 post-fight press conference that he had every intention of making GSP vs. Hendricks II happen without any sort of “waiting situation,” per MMA Junkie.
However, this report makes an immediate rematch seem nearly unfathomable.
On the off chance this weekend was GSP’s last fight, the longtime champion would retire with 12 straight victories, nine of which were successful title defenses.
As of early Monday afternoon, no one from St-Pierre’s camp has addressed the allegations brought forward by TMZ Sports.
Stay tuned to Bleacher Report for the latest updates on UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre.
John Heinis is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA Editor for eDraft.com.
Georges St-Pierre’s great escape against Johny Hendricks at UFC 167 has left the entire welterweight division a complete and utter mess.
The welterweight hierarchy remained intact on Saturday night after St-Pierre earned a controversial split dec…
Georges St-Pierre’s great escape against Johny Hendricks at UFC 167 has left the entire welterweight division a complete and utter mess.
The welterweight hierarchy remained intact on Saturday night after St-Pierre earned a controversial split decision win over Hendricks and successfully defended the UFC title for a ninth consecutive time.
After the fight, St-Pierre announced that he would step away from fighting and go on an extended hiatus to fix some personal problems in his life.
First off, this isn’t another article aimed at discrediting the reign of the greatest welterweight of all time. In fact, yours truly is in the minority of those having actually scored the fight for St-Pierre.
When it comes to St-Pierre hanging up the gloves, it all feels like incredibly bad timing.
St-Pierre staying and continuing to compete in the UFC would keep the welterweight division on track. Hendricks would likely get an immediate rematch, and fighters like Matt Brown, Robbie Lawler and Hector Lombard would continue to make up ground as the next contenders in line.
Without St-Pierre, however, things would get a bit topsy-turvy.
The first decision the UFC would have to make would be whether or not to strip St-Pierre of the welterweight title or implement an interim belt. For St-Pierre to actually mention the hiatus publicly, one would assume he is going to be gone for a significant period of time.
Once the plan for the title is in place, the UFC would then have to name contenders. Hendricks is a shoo-in for the first spot. The second spot would likely either go to Lawler or Brown, depending upon the outcome of Brown’s December bout with Carlos Condit.
Things could have gone over much smoother for the UFC if Rory MacDonald defeated Lawler. MacDonald could have marched right into his mentor’s spotlight and fought Hendricks for the welterweight title.
If MacDonald won, it would have made things really interesting once St-Pierre resumed fighting and returned to the welterweight division. If Hendricks won, St-Pierre could have waltzed right back into the rematch the world wanted in the first place.
No one should attempt to force St-Pierre to continue to compete if his heart isn’t into fighting. It would be selfish to even try.
The entire welterweight division hovers between chaos and normalcy, and St-Pierre is the only person who knows how this story will eventually play out.
If Georges St-Pierre’s face—or his post-fight comments—weren’t proof enough, now there are data showing his UFC 167 bout with Johny Hendricks was the worst beating of the welterweight champion’s professional career.
The fight, which St-Pier…
If Georges St-Pierre’s face—or his post-fight comments—weren’t proof enough, now there are data showing his UFC 167 bout with Johny Hendricks was the worst beating of the welterweight champion’s professional career.
The report confirms with numbers what many observers had already sensed in their guts. In the cage immediately after the fight and in the post-fight news conference, St-Pierre admitted to memory loss and blurred vision, among other symptoms. He also received stitches before joining the presser.
“That guy hit like a truck, you know?” St-Pierre said at the news conference, according to an account from Yahoo! Sports’ Kevin Iole. “My brain got bashed left and right inside my skull. I need to think and see what’s going to happen. I got very emotional. I’m going to have a talk with the guys and see what is going to happen.”
Also that evening, St-Pierre said he wanted to step away from the sport for “a while.” He said personal issues, which he declined to identify, were at the core of that desire. Disturbingly, St-Pierre said he couldn’t sleep, had “issues” and was “going crazy.”
Promoters, fans and maybe even St-Pierre himself now must stand by to learn what the future holds for one of the best mixed martial artists in history. UFC president Dana White and Hendricks himself—both of whom felt Hendricks won the fight—have called for a rematch.
Hendricks, particularly after Saturday night, may be the most fearsome knockout artist in the UFC today. The 30-year-old southpaw has earned eight of his 15 professional wins by knockout or technical knockout.
Whether you think Georges St-Pierre deserved his decision victory, or you believe Johny Hendricks was robbed, it’s hard to argue that Hendricks didn’t take it to the champion on the feet like no man before him.
A few hours before UFC 167 began, I publ…
Whether you think Georges St-Pierre deserved his decision victory, or you believe Johny Hendricks was robbed, it’s hard to argue that Hendricks didn’t take it to the champion on the feet like no man before him.
A few hours before UFC 167 began, I published a short breakdown entitled “Johny Hendricks: A Real and Unique Threat” in which I talked about the entirely unique matchup which Hendricks brought. In this piece, I discussed the difficulty which a traditional southpaw provides for a jab-centric orthodox fighter.
Both St-Pierre and his teammate Rory MacDonald are excellent at using their jab to hurt opponents but struggled to get much going at UFC 167.
Johny Hendricks and Robbie Lawler showed that you don’t need to be a better or more rounded fighter. You just need to be the right fighter. They were stylistic nightmares for their opponents and put on great showings as a result.
In his last two fights, St-Pierre has met two southpaws after a significant length of time without meeting one. In that time, he had learned to box—and particularly to jab—with great effectiveness and venom.
The first southpaw whom St-Pierre met was Nick Diaz. Diaz is a southpaw but not in the conventional mould. Diaz’s focus is on lead-hand punches just as any orthodox boxer is taught. He opened himself up to St-Pierre’s jab often and really had nothing for the champion.
The Traditional Southpaw
Hendricks, however, is far more like a traditional southpaw—the kind of southpaw whom great orthodox boxers would avoid in the golden days of boxing. Were he fighting in another time, Hendricks would likely be forced out of the fight game due to a lack of fighters wanting to match up with a dangerous left-hander.
A traditional southpaw barely jabs at all, his lead hand exists entirely to eliminate the orthodox boxer’s jab. This makes everything the orthodox fighter usually does nearly worthless. He cannot lead with his jab anymore so he must throw his rear hand, which is further away, slower and unnatural to him.
Meanwhile, the southpaw has likely always been sparring and fighting against orthodox fighters; there are just so many more of them. He is used to using his lead hand to check and throwing his rear hand as a lead.
In both the main event and the MacDonald vs. Lawler bout, we were treated to these southpaw versus orthodox matchups. Both MacDonald and St-Pierre have previously demonstrated brilliant, fight-changing jabs, and at UFC 167, neither could get his jab going with any consistency.
Robbie Lawler vs. Rory MacDonald
I used the phrase “traditional southpaw,” but Lawler does a lot of weird things. His lead counter-uppercut is one of his favourite punches, and it certainly isn’t a conventional one. But what he does excellently, which MacDonald has not encountered before, is control the lead hand.
With his lead (right) hand extended, Lawler keeps his palm in the path of MacDonald’s jab. Nobody (certainly not if they’re fighting an opponent in their own weight class) can vaporize an opponent’s hand with their jab in this sort of position.
This match was billed as a technician, MacDonald, against an instinctive power-puncher, Lawler. In actuality, what it was was a good southpaw versus a fighter who hasn’t ever fought a good, experienced southpaw.
Lawler controlled MacDonald’s lead hand, grabbed at his wrist, slapped his hand down and generally harassed the jab into impotence. MacDonald’s unfamiliarity with the position showed when he dropped his hand to escape from Lawler’s hand control but remained in range.
This allowed Lawler to capitalize with lead elbows and jabs of his own.
What Lawler also did well, and has always done, was give MacDonald the opportunity to punch and then throw his lead (right) hook over the top of it. It was this punch which caused MacDonald so much trouble at the start of the third round.
Deny the opponent an opening all fight then show it and you can almost guarantee their response. Lawler is known as a wild man, but he’s one of the savviest counterpunchers (particularly southpaw counterpunches) in MMA.
MacDonald’s wrestling looked as good as ever, but Lawler used butterfly hooks on the ground to neutralize MacDonald’s dangerous ground-and-pound.
Georges St-Pierre vs. Johny Hendricks
The problems which I suggested could exist for St-Pierre affected him to a greater degree than I could have ever predicted. St-Pierre’s jab was completely neutralized for large portions of the bout, leaving him to essentially lead with other, less reliable techniques or to wrestle against a stronger wrestler.
Today the forums are filled with questions about why GSP didn’t jab more and what could he have done better. It wasn’t that GSP didn’t feel like jabbing, it was that he couldn’t for the most part. Hendricks’ lead hand prevented St-Pierre from firing straight to the target for the most part.
Now St-Pierre did land some nice hooks around Hendricks’ extended lead hand, which is a danger if you get into hand fighting too far from your body. St-Pierre also landed his jab very effectively as a response to Hendricks’ misses, which in any Hendricks match are many.
Hendricks’ habit of diving forward behind his face, then leaving his face out after he is done punching, is appearing less frequently in his fights but still more than it should. If Hendricks missed with one of his bull rushes, or even after he connected, he would eat a stiff jab on the snout while his hands dangled.
St-Pierre is the greatest mixed martial artist fighting today because, obviously enough, he is the greatest in mixing his skills. In terms of pure wrestling, he is not on the level of many of the accomplished wrestlers he fights, but his excellent striking game upsets them so much that he can get easy takedowns on them.
By effectively removing St-Pierre’s striking game (which is very one-dimensional at this point), Hendricks forced St-Pierre into an awkward stand-up match or a pure wrestling match against a stronger pure wrestler.
How Can St-Pierre Take the Rematch?
So what are St-Pierre’s option in a rematch? How can he stop the next southpaw he fights simply coming along, focusing on checking his lead hand and making him fight with techniques which hold a fraction of the effectiveness?
Well to start he could learn to lead with his right hand. He threw the occasional superman punch, rather than superman jab, against Hendricks in order to lead with his right hand, but aside from that, most of his offence which wasn’t jabbing proved as ineffective as jabbing into Hendricks’ outstretched palm.
Against southpaws, when hand fighting, it is best to look to get your lead hand outside of theirs, then pull it toward you and across yourself as you step your lead foot outside of theirs and throw a right straight.
Getting the lead foot outside the opponent’s and throwing the power hand simply places a fighter in such a dominating position. Rear-hand punches, lead-hand punches, kicks and even trips and sweeps are available from there.
Having your lead leg on the outside makes life hellish for the other man.
Leading with the rear hand is so very important against a traditional southpaw. Jabbing only really becomes more important when opponents begin retracting their lead hand to avoid the hand fight.
Of course if a fighter still wants to jab against a southpaw who is hand fighting with him, he can still make it happen. The skipping stone jab is where a fighter uses his lead hand to slap or pull the opponent’s lead hand just below the line of his shoulder, before stepping in and jabbing with the same hand.
It isn’t a power technique, but by targeting the opponent’s eye on his lead side, it is effective in getting a reaction out of him. He will pull back, square up and avoid the hand fight, allowing the orthodox fighter to open up with jabs again, or the southpaw will simply attempt to react each time his lead hand is slapped down. This means the skipping stone jab leads perfectly into the right straight.
St-Pierre actually used the skipping stone jab numerous times throughout the bout, but being St-Pierre, he never threw a right hand after it and never made use of the openings exposed by Hendricks’ flustered defence.
A master of the skipping stone jab was Benny Leonard. Leonard is considered one of the greatest boxers of all time, but curiously enough, the only footage which exists of him is against Lew Tendler, the era’s premier southpaw.
An additional avenue to explore is the use of the left hook as Hendricks comes in. He often leaves himself completely exposed and ends up getting dropped to his knees as he did against Carlos Condit at the end of their first round by means of a left hook. St-Pierre found this counter numerous times throughout the bout but put little on it as he was so flustered by the attacks coming at him.
If St-Pierre can start hitting Hendricks, I have little doubt he can open up the opportunities for his legendary double leg and snowball from there. Hendricks’ defensive skills on the feet aren’t great; it is simply that St-Pierre only has one technique which really needs defending on the feet.
There are lead-handed options, but to be frank, that shouldn’t be the attitude which St-Pierre takes. It would be taking pot shots on occasions when Hendricks is open to the left hand, when Josh Koscheck amply proved that Hendricks is almost always open to the right hand.
Conclusions
Johny Hendricks is not as good a fighter all around as Georges St-Pierre; I think that goes without saying. Robbie Lawler might not be as skilled all around as Rory MacDonald. But fights aren’t about skills, they’re about matchups, and both Tristar representatives met nightmare matchups at UFC 167.
St-Pierre and MacDonald are both skilled in all areas of the game, but they rely so heavily on a minimalist toolkit. If you only need a jab on the feet with some kicks interspersed, as soon as that jab is gone, you have nothing. That is what we saw from both men at UFC 167.
In their next matches, they could meet orthodox fighters or southpaws who don’t fight like southpaws (such as Nick Diaz) and look incredible. They could jab their next opponents’ faces into corned beef hash. Fight fans have a way of saying fighters are “back” without them proving that they have addressed the issues which cause them to lose in the first place.
Both St-Pierre and MacDonald need to go back to the drawing board and admit that having a completely one-sided offence is not going to cut it against every opponent.
Pick up Jack’s eBooks Advanced Striking and Elementary Striking from his blog, Fights Gone By.
I have no idea what goes on in the minds of great fighters like Georges St-Pierre as they sit backstage, battered, bleeding and bruised, getting their gloves cut off their hands after a tough decision victory.It has to be a terribly surreal situation,&…
I have no idea what goes on in the minds of great fighters like Georges St-Pierre as they sit backstage, battered, bleeding and bruised, getting their gloves cut off their hands after a tough decision victory.
It has to be a terribly surreal situation, rife with joys and demands the normal person will never know; such is the life of a professional combatant. They fight in front of 15,000 or more in the arenas (if they are lucky) and if Mars is very kind, they fight in front of millions on pay-per-view.
And let’s be honest, Mars has been very kind to St-Pierre.
A multi-millionaire many times over, St-Pierre has just notched his ninth defense of his UFC welterweight title, making him the greatest welterweight champion in the company’s history. It’s a staggering feat truly reflective of a man who, not all that long ago, dropped to his knees and begged the UFC to give him a title shot.
But now, after a hard-fought battle with Johny Hendricks, he is talking about taking some time off for personal reasons. Obviously, he has a right to walk away from the sport, without a doubt—just not right now.
Yes, it sounds harsh as hell, but St-Pierre knew what he was getting into when he dropped to his knees and begged for a chance to fight Matt Hughes for the throne. Well, he got it, and once you get the crown, there are demands that come with the title—and make no mistake about it, when you become king, you are in service of the sport until you are defeated or until you retire.
If St-Pierre had wanted to retire after his fight with Koscheck or Shields, then no one would have said much, nor should they have. To be sure, this isn’t about St-Pierre having the right to gather unto himself his own body and soul for the means of healing, because he has that right, and no one is trying to take that from him.
People are crying out that Dana White is this unreasonable, demanding, greedy jackass who is just singling out St-Pierre for unfair treatment, just because he can.
This, of course, is wrong on many levels.
When Randy Couture defended his UFC heavyweight crown for the very first time, against Pedro Rizzo at UFC 31, fans were treated to an incredibly close fight that left both men badly battered. Couture ended up getting a unanimous decision victory that surprised many, including Couture himself.
White then went on to schedule an immediate rematch between both men (at UFC 34), because the sport needed a definitive answer as to who was really the best.
Couture, having spent weeks on the sofa, unable to walk because his leg had swollen many times its normal size (thanks to countless leg kicks from Rizzo), got off said sofa and went back to training.
He wasn’t doing it because he agreed with White, and he wasn’t doing it because he thought he lost and needed to prove something to himself.
Couture stated he didn’t think there was a need for a rematch since all three judges had given him a close decision victory. But he did it anyway because that’s what the fans wanted—and what they were wanting was certainty.
They wanted to know, for sure, who the king really was: In Round 1, it looked like Couture, but in Round 2, it looked like Rizzo, and the rest of the rounds were a toss-up, with Round 5 looking like it belonged to Rizzo.
So, Couture fought Rizzo again and crushed all doubts as to who was the better fighter by beating Rizzo down for three straight rounds until the fight was called.
This, of course, is but one of many examples of when White took on the mantle of bad guy in order to ensure that the sport got what it needed. He made Frankie Edgar rematch BJ Penn, then he made Edgar rematch Gray Maynard. Then, when Benson Henderson narrowly took the title from Edgar, he made Henderson rematch Edgar.
Why? Because the sport needed to know, for sure, who the king really was.
Now, do not mistake me; I do not think that White’s every whim is what is in keeping with the true needs of the sport, nor do I think he is right all the time. I could go on all day about how I feel that he has, bit by bit, started to act as if the sport is there to serve him instead of vice versa.
But calling for St-Pierre to put aside any talk of a sabbatical in order to give Hendricks an immediate rematch? That isn’t White being selfish or uncaring; that is White just being reflective of the demands that come with wearing the greatest title in MMA: the UFC belt.
In short, that is White being necessarily harsh and absolutely correct.
Maybe he should have called for Jon Jones to give Alexander Gustafsson an immediate rematch (I think he should have, especially for the sake of consistency), but that is a different fight and a different division. Right now, he is calling for St-Pierre to fight Johny Hendricks once again, and unless St-Pierre is going to retire, he should answer the call with vigor.
Let us not forget that the welterweight title has already seen one interim champion during St-Pierre’s reign, and that was just last year. For a period of 10 months, Carlos Condit was the interim UFC welterweight champion while St-Pierre was on the sidelines, healing a bad leg injury and wondering if he even wanted to come back.
Now, just two fights after reclaiming the throne, he wants to go on vacation?
If St-Pierre is having issues in his life that are of a serious nature and are simply demanding his undivided attention right now, then he should retire. God knows the man has earned it.
But if this is just a matter of indecision or anxiety in the face of the complexities of a life ongoing, then he needs to fight.
His chosen vocation is that of a professional combatant, and as such, he has been utterly blessed with the right combination of skills, athleticism, coaching, dedication, desire, fortitude and, perhaps above all else, opportunity, to reach the highest level; that of UFC champion.
No one is saying he can’t retire if he wants to. That is his right, and I have no doubt White would respect it, given how important St-Pierre has been for the growth of the sport in Canada, not to mention how consistently St-Pierre has stepped up and delivered against the best of the best in a terribly competitive division.
But there is a big difference between retirement and taking a “time out” from a sport that is running 365 days a year.
We should all give him just a little while to clear his head after such a fight; he’s earned that, 1,000 times over. Hendricks hurt him many times and according to one judge out of three, honestly defeated him.
This wasn’t just a fight—it was a true title fight, and St-Pierre barely bested a man who confounded his detractors (those who said he was sure to gas after three rounds) and rose to the occasion, giving his all for five full rounds toward one end:
For the chance to become champion.
St-Pierre emerged on the other side of that fight as the victor, and to the victor go the spoils: the money, the fame, the legacy of greatness and so much more.
All of these things St-Pierre has earned—save the right to hold the title hostage.
Mr. St-Pierre, you have fought honorably and fought incredibly well for 44 rounds since defeating your conqueror, Matt Serra, some 80 months ago. You have always stepped up and faced the best opposition available, without question, and your dominance has never been in question, your title never in true jeopardy, until this last weekend.
To say you have been a superlative champion is honest and just, and I say that without question or reservation. Of all the past UFC welterweight champions—men such as the great Pat Miletich, your countryman Carlos Newton (the first ever Canadian UFC champion), two-time champion Matt Hughes, BJ Penn and Carlos Condit—no one has done it better than you.
But you are being rightfully called upon, once again, to represent the best interests of the greatest title in mixed martial arts: that of UFC champion.
If Georges St-Pierre’s face—or his post-fight comments—weren’t proof enough, now there are data showing his UFC 167 bout with Johny Hendricks was the worst beating of the welterweight champion’s professional career.