Mixed martial arts fighter Georges St-Pierre delivers remarks after receiving the Order of Sport during the Class of 2023 induction ceremony in Gatineau, Que., on Thursday, Oct. 19, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby
From age 17 to 20, Georges St-Pierre held down three jobs while going to school and training in mixed martial arts. Five hours sleep a night was par for the course.
While studying natural sciences at CEGEP, he worked in a government recreation centre for delinquent youth, in a floor recovery store and as a bouncer at a club named Fuzzy Brossard in suburban Montreal.
To this day, he remains proud that he earned his floor recovering certificate.
The hard work eventually led to the UFC, where St-Pierre won two titles and set the standard for excellence in the Octagon. And on Thursday, it took the 42-year-old UFC Hall of Famer to the Canada Sports Hall of Fame.
St-Pierre retired for good in February 2019, a two-division champion with a record of 26-2-0 and 13-fight winning streak. His success inside the cage, fuelled by hours of meticulous preparation, put MMA on the map in Canada and helped fuel the UFC’s worldwide expansion.
He has no regrets.
“In terms of my mixed martial arts career, I’m happy and I’m satisfied,” he said in an interview Thursday. “Because I wanted to be champion. I wanted to do something to change the sport in terms of drug testing. I did, in terms of the way people look at the sport. I wanted to change the idea of the stereotype surrounding the fighters.
“And I also wanted to retire healthy and on top, and I did.”
St-Pierre still holds the record for most UFC title defences at welterweight (nine) and the longest welterweight title reign at 2,064 days.
He avenged both his losses, defeating iconic welterweight champion Matt Hughes and winning his title back from Matt (The Terror) Serra. And in 2017, after nearly four years out of the sport, he moved up a weight class and dethroned middleweight champion Michael Bisping before giving up the 185-pound crown a month later, citing health issues (ulcerative colitis), and eventually retiring for good.
“He is the most famous athlete to ever come out of Canada and one of the greatest martial artists of all-time,” UFC president Dana White said famously, leaving some to wonder where Wayne Gretzky was in that reasoning.
St-Pierre remains a popular figure, with 4.5 million followers on Instagram and two million on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“I think it’s important to always stay motivated. I still have other goals that I’m pursuing right now as an entrepreneur,” he said. “I’m more busy now than I used to be.”
His business portfolio is extensive.
He has a role in a movie called “La Cage,” scheduled to come out next year on Netflix. It’s the story of a young MMA fighter who looks for guidance from St-Pierre’s character, whom he describes as someone akin to Apollo Creed in the “Rocky” franchise.
“It’s a little bit like “Entourage’ for mixed martial arts,” St-Pierre said.
He has a brand of vodka named Pur Sang, a home fitness system called BaseBlocks, a line of food supplements called Warrior and is an ambassador for Bet99, among other interests.
The Georges St-Pierre Foundation’s goal is to help youth, stop bullying and promote physical activity in schools. It’s a subject close to his heart. St-Pierre was bullied growing up in St-Isidore near Montreal.
St-Pierre rarely sits still. An archeology aficionado, he recently visited the Temple of Jupiter in Baalbek, Lebanon, and took in the pyramids in Egypt.
St-Pierre initially stepped away from the sport in November 2013 after a split-decision win over Johny (Bigg Rigg) Hendricks at UFC 167. At the time he said needed time away from the demands of MMA.
He overcame knee surgeries and other injuries as well as accusations from some opponents that he cheated (steroids, according to Nick Diaz, and greasing up with Vaseline according to B.J. Penn). White questioned his mental strength after he lost his first title defence to Serra.
His preparation for fights was legendary, incorporating everything from gymnastics to power-lifting and pull-ups with a 75-pound weight chained to his waist.
Each opponent was a puzzle to be conquered. St-Pierre, a black belt in karate and Brazilian jiu-jitsu, specialized in taking away his opponent’s advantages.
It made for methodical, if not always pretty wins.
At UFC 87 in August 2008, St-Pierre was successful on seven of nine takedown attempts against Jon Fitch, an accomplished former Purdue wrestler.
Fitch had won his previous 16 bouts. But after 25 minutes with St-Pierre, Fitch looked like he had been in a car wreck – both eyes blackened, his left almost swollen shut. There were stitches above and below his left eye and below his right.
St-Pierre won the 170-pound title at UFC 65 in Sacramento in November 2006, stopping Hughes in the second round. Two years earlier at UFC 50, the Canadian had been submitted by Hughes with one second remaining in the first round.
St-Pierre admitted later he was in awe fighting his idol.
It was a different story next time. GSP stunned Hughes with a kick to the head before finishing him off on the ground. After being handed the championship belt, St-Pierre immediately gave it to his mother, whom he hoisted on his shoulders in the cage.
St-Pierre joined Carlos (The Ronin) Newton as the only Canadian to ever hold a UFC title, finding himself a champion in a sport that was not permitted in Ontario and several other provinces at the time.
He helped legitimize the sport and was front and centre at Toronto’s Rogers Centre in April 2011, drawing a then-UFC-record crowd of 55,724 to see him beat Jake Shields at UFC 129.
His road wasn’t always smooth. St-Pierre’s first reign as champion lasted less than five months as he was upset by Serra after being dazed by a blow to the head at UFC 69 in April 2007.
St-Pierre’s preparation for the bout had been disrupted by injuries and serious family health problems.
As St-Pierre’s training went, so did his fights. Both were a disaster. The loss was a wake-up call.
“It taught me what it takes to become world champion,” St-Pierre said at the time. “And when I lost to Matt Serra, it taught me what it takes to stay world champion.
“You know when you become world champion at 25 years old and everybody around you – in the gym, everywhere – tell you how great you are and things like that, it makes you believe that you’re in a box that separates you from the other fighters. But this box, this line is an illusion.”
St-Pierre changed the people around him and started anew.
On the advice of sports psychologist Brian Cain, he looked to rid himself of the mental albatross of his title defeat by writing Serra’s name onto a brick and hurling it into the waters off Montreal’s South Shore.
“Actually I thought it was kind of weird but I felt better after,” St-Pierre said.
He dominated Serra in regaining his title at UFC 83 in Montreal in April 2008. And he kept winning, although his split decision win over Hendricks at UFC 167 was razor-thin. St-Pierre, whose battered face belied the decision, stepped away soon after.
Citing the pressures of being champion and a constant limelight, St-Pierre said his life had become “completely insane” and a “freaking zoo.”
A gentleman outside the cage, St-Pierre rarely indulged in trash-talking, explaining he did his talking in the cage – and felt his English would not do him justice.
It was a different look for a sport that allows its athletes to kick each other in the head and punch someone when they’re down.
St-Pierre comes from humble beginnings. His father spent more than 60 hours a week on a floor-recovering business, installing carpet and ceramics. His mother nursed the elderly.
“We didn’t have a lot of money but I always ate my three meals a day,” St-Pierre recalled. “I grew up with the mentality that I had to work to get what I want.”
He took up karate as a kid but eventually moved into mixed martial arts – giving up hockey because his family couldn’t afford both – after being seduced by the sight of Royce Gracie in the early days of the UFC.
St-Pierre won his first fight as a pro in January 2002, defeating Ivan Menjivar. Four more wins and he was in the UFC.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 19, 2022.
