Sports are a results based business. A good effort, working hard, trying your absolute best history is not going to necessarily remember how hard you tried. We remember who wins and sometimes we remember who loses. Rarely do we remember how you win or lose, unless it is performed in spectacular fashion. Boston Red Sox fans know all too well covering both extremes here with their improbable comeback in 2004 or Bill Buckner in 1986. Fans can be selective in how we cover certain sports teams or athletes, inconsistently applying standards of greatness.
Two years ago, Floyd Mayweather Jr. was considered one of the greatest boxers of all-time but viewed as ducking Manny Pacquiao in what would have been the biggest fight in boxing history. Mayweather has seemed to silence his critics with recent wins over Miguel Cotto, Robert Guerrero and Canelo Alvarez. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not here to argue that Mayweather is anything less than one of the greatest boxers of all-time. He is a technical beast that takes his opponents apart while not allowing you to put your hands on him. In a sport that has one purpose; put your hands on your opponent. Floyd Mayweather makes the choice to not let you touch him, a courtesy he’s not as generous with.
Who else are we describing when we talk about an elite fighter, a fighter who technically dismantles his opponent, a fighter who essentially decides that his opponent will not have the opportunity to do to him what he will be doing to them? A fighter who continuously defeats, by a wide margin, the best fighters that stand in front of him, time and time again.
This is the two stories of one fighter.
Over the past number of years, I am of the mindset that Georges St-Pierre is the equivalent to MMA that Floyd Mayweather Jr. is to boxing. Both are enormous pay-per-view draws, the biggest in their sport. Both are artists in their ability to technically dismantle their opponent in the fashion that they deem necessary. Both often come out of their fights unscathed, having endured little damage. Some more than others, however generally speaking, they are inflicting much more than they endure. Both are absolutely dominant in their fights with long win streaks wins by wide margins. With all of that said, both fighters lack true knock-out power as they are regularly winning lop-sided decisions. Let’s focus on the last detail here, the lacking of knock-out power. While it is true of both fighters, it only seems to effect the perception of one.
The conversation surrounding GSP in his recent fights is his perceived inability to finish. With dominant title defenses since reclaiming the UFC Welterweight belt at UFC 83 over Matt Serra, GSP has defeated the likes of Jon Fitch, Thiago Alves, Dan Hardy, Josh Koscheck, BJ Penn, Nick Diaz and Jake Shields. Minus the Penn fight that was stopped by BJ’s corner, each of GSP’s title defenses has gone the distance. Only Shields managed to win a round from GSP in their fights and even those were arguable. Top welterweights like Fitch, Alves, Hardy, Koscheck and Diaz could not take a single round in their five round fights. If we look past Matt Serra, a personal favorite of my own, and his improbable win over GSP, we have to go back an awful long way before we find any example of someone actually having the upper hand. Minus one unlikely punch, we are looking back to UFC 50 in October of 2004 when Matt Hughes defeated GSP for the vacant welterweight title. It has been nine years since we have seen St-Pierre in the octagon getting controlled.
Anderson Silva cannot say the same, despite clearly being one of, if not the, greatest of all-time. Even prior to his defeat at the hand of Chris Weidman, Chael Sonnen dominated him for five rounds. Jon Jones has gone the distance in two of his last four fights, having stopped Sonnen and Vitor Belfort in recent defenses, two fighters who arguably did not do much to deserve a shot. With Jones current record of stoppages, he is sure to be safe from the MMA community’s ire over a lack of finishes for at least a few more fights.
Considering all of this, why does GSP get labeled as boring or he is not a finisher or he lacks the killer instinct or he plays it safe? A lot of this first started after his defeat of Dan Hardy at UFC 111. I was blown away at the criticism that started after the fight as having watched it. In the same breath that GSP was being criticized for not finishing the fight, fans were clamoring over Hardy’s heart for not tapping to a brutal arm-bar that St-Pierre managed to secure.
Floyd Mayweather Jr. is on the hook for the same. However, instead of tearing Mayweather down, his dominance and excellence is celebrated. His technical approach is becoming a thing of legends. What is the difference between the two fighters that leads to such a gulf in their current perceptions?
The boxing and MMA community certainly share many of the same fans. However is this the example of something that affects only MMA? I have attended several live UFC events and being there live quickly reminds you how many self-diagnosed hardcore MMA fans are really only there for the YouTube moment. These fans are not there to see a good fight; they are there to see that big knock-out they can talk to others about the next day. Thirty seconds into a grapple and they’re on their feet booing, screaming “Stand ‘em up!”
Boxing fans seem get this one right; they recognize greatness when they see it.
St-Pierre’s upcoming title defense against Johnny “Big Rig” Hendricks is being anticipated as one of the toughest of his reign. Not since Thiago Alves has he faced a striker with this level of knock-out power, but we seen all the good that did for him. I will be live in attendance at the fight showing appreciation to one of the greatest fighters of this generation as he likely dismantles another top welterweight that UFC puts in front of him.
Nobody is criticizing Mayweather for going the distance in his fights, it might be past due that some take a step back on St-Pierre and appreciate what we’re witnessing.
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