81 Facts About Georges St-Pierre

1.

Georges St-Pierre is a Canadian actor and former professional mixed martial artist.

2.

Georges St-Pierre is widely regarded as the greatest fighter in mixed martial arts history.

3.

Georges St-Pierre is a three-time former UFC Welterweight Champion, having won the title twice and the interim title once between November 2006 and April 2008.

4.

Georges St-Pierre retired as the reigning Welterweight Champion in December 2013, having held the record for most wins in title bouts and the second longest combined title streak in UFC history while defending his title nine consecutive times.

5.

Georges St-Pierre returned to the Octagon in November 2017 at UFC 217, when he defeated Michael Bisping by submission to win the Middleweight title, thus becoming the fourth fighter in the history of the UFC to be a multi-division champion.

6.

Georges St-Pierre relinquished the title a few weeks later citing health reasons and officially retired from MMA.

7.

Georges St-Pierre, a Quebecois, was born in Saint-Isidore, Monteregie, Quebec, to Roland and Pauline Georges St-Pierre on May 19,1981.

8.

Georges St-Pierre had a difficult childhood, attending a school where others would steal his clothes and money.

9.

Georges St-Pierre began learning Kyokushin Karate at age seven to defend himself against a school bully.

10.

Georges St-Pierre took up wrestling, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and boxing after his Karate teacher died when he was around 16 years old.

11.

Georges St-Pierre attended high school at Ecole Pierre-Bedard where he held the school record for number of chin-ups done.

12.

Georges St-Pierre has trained with a number of groups in a large variety of gyms throughout his fighting career.

13.

Georges St-Pierre received his brown belt in BJJ from Renzo Gracie on July 21,2006.

14.

In September 2008, Georges St-Pierre earned his black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu under Bruno Fernandes.

15.

Georges St-Pierre began training with Rashad Evans, Nathan Marquardt, Keith Jardine, Donald Cerrone and other mixed martial arts fighters at Greg Jackson's Submission Fighting Gaidojutsu school in New Mexico.

16.

Between 2006 and 2009, Georges St-Pierre trained in Muay Thai under Phil Nurse at the Wat in New York City.

17.

Georges St-Pierre made his Ultimate Fighting Championship debut at UFC 46, where he defeated highly ranked Karo Parisyan by unanimous decision.

18.

Georges St-Pierre's next fight in the UFC was against Jay Hieron at UFC 48.

19.

Georges St-Pierre defeated Hieron via technical knockout in only 1:42 of the first round.

20.

Georges St-Pierre then returned to the UFC to face Jason Miller at UFC 52, defeating Miller by unanimous decision.

21.

Georges St-Pierre was then matched up against top contender Frank Trigg at UFC 54.

22.

Georges St-Pierre controlled the fight and eventually sneaked in a rear-naked choke with less than a minute remaining in the first round.

23.

Georges St-Pierre then faced future lightweight champion Sean Sherk at UFC 56.

24.

Midway through the second round, Georges St-Pierre became the second fighter to defeat Sherk and the first to finish him.

25.

The UFC announced afterward that Georges St-Pierre would have the opportunity to fight for the title when his condition was fully healed.

26.

Georges St-Pierre was seen as a trainer on The Ultimate Fighter 4: The Comeback on Spike TV, which featured fighters who were previously seen in UFC events including Matt Serra, Shonie Carter, Pete Sell, Patrick Cote, and Travis Lutter.

27.

Georges St-Pierre was seen vocally supporting fellow Canadian and training partner Patrick Cote during the season's airing.

28.

At UFC 63, Georges St-Pierre made an appearance to support fellow Canadian David "The Crow" Loiseau.

29.

Penn, Georges St-Pierre stepped into the cage to hype up his upcoming title fight against Hughes, stating that he was glad that Hughes won his fight, but that he was "not impressed" by Hughes' performance.

30.

Hughes said that they "had words" off-camera shortly after, at which time Georges St-Pierre apologized, saying he had misunderstood something Hughes had said on the microphone and did not mean to offend him.

31.

Georges St-Pierre challenged Matt Hughes again at UFC 65 for the UFC Welterweight Championship.

32.

At UFC 69 in 2007, Georges St-Pierre suffered only his second loss in MMA, when he lost the welterweight title to The Ultimate Fighter 4 winner Matt Serra when Serra forced the referee to step in after a series of unanswered strikes at 3:25 of round one.

33.

Georges St-Pierre has since gone on to say that he should not have made any excuses and that Serra was simply the better fighter that night.

34.

Georges St-Pierre outwrestled Koscheck, who is a four-time Division I NCAA All-American and an NCAA wrestling champion, by scoring takedowns, stopping Koscheck's takedown attempts and maintaining top position throughout most of the fight.

35.

Many predicted that Koscheck would outmatch Georges St-Pierre on the ground due to his credentials, but Georges St-Pierre was confident that he was a better wrestler and striker and was more well-versed in submissions than Koscheck.

36.

Matt Serra had to pull out of UFC 79 due to a back injury sustained during training, and instead Georges St-Pierre faced Hughes in a rubber match for the interim UFC Welterweight Championship.

37.

At UFC 83 on April 19,2008, Georges St-Pierre fought Matt Serra in a rematch to determine the undisputed UFC welterweight champion.

38.

Fitch was on a 16-fight winning streak and a victory against Georges St-Pierre would have been Fitch's ninth consecutive UFC win, a new UFC record.

39.

Georges St-Pierre defeated Jon Fitch by unanimous decision, scoring multiple devastating strikes and taking the former Purdue wrestling captain down seemingly at will.

40.

Georges St-Pierre dominated the rest of the bout, scoring the first take-down of the night midway through the second round and from that point on, taking Penn down at will, repeatedly passing his guard, and persistently punishing the Hawaiian with a brutal ground-and-pound attack.

41.

Alves showed promise on his feet standing up in the fight, but Georges St-Pierre's wrestling offensive, endurance, and ground control proved too much for the challenger and put Georges St-Pierre en route to a unanimous decision victory, despite suffering a pulled groin muscle in the third round.

42.

Georges St-Pierre successfully defended his welterweight title against Dan Hardy on March 27,2010, at UFC 111 which took place in Newark, New Jersey.

43.

Georges St-Pierre caught Hardy in the first round with an armbar, but Hardy refused to tap and eventually fought out of the hold.

44.

Georges St-Pierre went on to win the fight by unanimous decision.

45.

Georges St-Pierre received harsh criticism for stalling the fight against Hardy and not being able to finish him.

46.

Georges St-Pierre's next fight was a rematch against Josh Koscheck at UFC 124 where he won by unanimous decision.

47.

Georges St-Pierre dominated the fight, this time around by use of superior striking and accurate boxing.

48.

Georges St-Pierre stated at the post-fight conference that his plan included catching Koscheck off-guard by striking with him rather than wrestling.

49.

White suggested that if Georges St-Pierre defeated Shields, it could mark a move to middleweight and a superfight against then UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva.

50.

Georges St-Pierre defeated Shields via unanimous decision.

51.

Georges St-Pierre received a 60-day medical suspension following his UFC 129 fight with Shields due to damage to his left eye.

52.

Two days after the fight Firas Zahabi, Georges St-Pierre's trainer, said that doctors had declared that his eye had not suffered any serious damage and that he would be able to resume training after 10 days.

53.

On October 18,2011, it was announced that Georges St-Pierre had pulled out of the fight due to a knee injury.

54.

However, on December 7,2011, it was revealed Georges St-Pierre had sustained a torn right ACL, an injury which would force him to be out for up to ten months, forcing him out of the bout with Diaz.

55.

Georges St-Pierre was set to return and fight Condit for the undisputed championship on November 17,2012, at UFC 154.

56.

Georges St-Pierre ended his post by announcing that his return would be in UFC 154, in which he was to fight Carlos Condit.

57.

Georges St-Pierre successfully defended his welterweight title on November 17,2012, at UFC 154 against Condit, winning a unanimous decision.

58.

Georges St-Pierre defended his title for the 8th time and defeated Nick Diaz at UFC 158 on March 16,2013, by unanimous decision.

59.

Georges St-Pierre faced Johny Hendricks on November 16,2013, in the main event at UFC 167.

60.

Georges St-Pierre won the fight by controversial split decision, a win which UFC president Dana White stated was unwarranted immediately after the fight.

61.

Georges St-Pierre officially announced on December 13,2013, that he voluntarily vacated the title and needed to take some time off from MMA.

62.

Georges St-Pierre left the door open for a possible return to MMA in the future.

63.

Via Twitter, Georges St-Pierre announced on March 27,2014, that he had torn his left ACL while training, further delaying a potential return to fighting.

64.

Georges St-Pierre was medically cleared to resume training on October 17,2014, but it remained unclear if he had plans to fight professionally again.

65.

In 2015, Georges St-Pierre played a key role in Rory MacDonald's preparation for his rematch with Robbie Lawler at UFC 189.

66.

Georges St-Pierre announced on June 20,2016, that he was re-negotiating his contract with the UFC with hopes of returning to the Octagon for December's UFC 206 in Toronto.

67.

The next day, UFC president Dana White confirmed Georges St-Pierre had officially re-signed with the organization.

68.

In March 2017, Georges St-Pierre revealed the contract was for four fights.

69.

White had intended for Georges St-Pierre to fight current UFC Welterweight Champion Tyron Woodley.

70.

Georges St-Pierre defeated Bisping via technical submission in the third round to become the Middleweight Champion and the fourth person in UFC history to become a champion in multiple divisions.

71.

Georges St-Pierre's win earned him the praise of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

72.

On December 7,2017, Georges St-Pierre announced that he was vacating his UFC middleweight title after 34 days of holding the belt.

73.

Georges St-Pierre declined, stating again that he was not medically fit to compete.

74.

Georges St-Pierre confirmed he had been approached but declined by saying a match-up against Diaz did not interest him.

75.

On December 13,2018, Georges St-Pierre revealed on La Sueur podcast that he had recovered completely from ulcerative colitis, but had not yet decided whether or not he would return to fighting.

76.

Georges St-Pierre announced his official retirement on February 21,2019, at a press conference at the Bell Centre in Montreal.

77.

On May 9,2020, UFC announced Georges St-Pierre will be inducted into the Modern-Era Wing of the UFC Hall of Fame.

78.

Georges St-Pierre has founded a charity, the GSP Foundation, that aims to reduce bullying and encourage youth participation in sports.

79.

Georges St-Pierre credited his OCD in being a factor in his success.

80.

Georges St-Pierre has a tattoo on the left side of his chest showing the kanji of Jujutsu.

81.

Georges St-Pierre has a tattoo on his right calf depicting a Fleur-de-lis.