St-Pierre
When you are 25, fresh off of a dominating performance over the greatest ever to fight in your weight class, and labeled by many as the future of MMA, it is easy to see how you can lose your way. Whenever you are the best at something, there will always be naysayers that will poke and prod until they uncover something that can bring you back down to earth. And once they find those elements, no matter what you do, be prepared for that stigma to last with you for years to come.
This is exactly what happened to current UFC Interim Welterweight Champion, Georges St. Pierre. What magnified this situation was that nobody had to do any significant digging to uncover this Superman’s kryptonite, he revealed it himself to the entire world on April 7th, 2007 when he was dominated by lifelong underdog Matt Serra, who took away his title in what is now known as MMA’s biggest upset of 2007.
How could a man that had all the physical tools be made to look as though he had never fought before in his life? It is just not physically possible. And there it is, everyone immediately jumped all over the one time champ, labeling him a mentally weak fighter with no heart.
It surely wasn’t too difficult to see coming. St. Pierre openly admitted that he let outside influences cloud his brain as they were constantly feeding him outrageous compliments making him feel that he was invincible. That nobody on their best day could hold a candle to him on his worst day. Well, just as easily as he let those thoughts affect him for the positive, the opposite effect happened when the clock struck midnight. So much so that he needed the support of a sports psychologist to help him find himself again.
“He (his psychologist) put Serra’s name on the brick and said: ‘When you’re ready to move on, then you can throw the brick in the river,” St-Pierre told the Montreal Gazzette.
“He actually gave me a brick and told me, though it would be easy to carry around for one day on my back, it would become heavy if I had to do it every single day, every single minute of my life, and that I had better get rid of it and look ahead to what was important. It’s sounds stupid, but that’s what I did and it helped me release a lot of negative energy that I had inside.”
As unorthodox as this approach may sound, it seems to have helped. St. Pierre has quickly regained his confidence and has bounced back nicely since his humiliating loss to Serra one year ago. He has since posted dominating victories over top contender Josh Koscheck and toyed with future UFC Hall of Famer Matt Hughes for a second consecutive time. This is where we stand now as he heads into his April 19th rematch against Serra.
St. Pierre is once again a heavy favorite (4.5 to 1) and the winner will be crowned undisputed champion? This scenario seems eerily familiar. So what has really changed since the last time they stepped in the Octagon to face each other? Remember that “mentally weak” tag that St. Pierre was hit with after his loss to Serra. Well it is still a predominant force that isn’t going away anytime soon. We live in a cruel world where you can get labeled something negative after one incident, but it will take multiple attempts of redemption to shake it, if you ever can. And Serra knows it.
“I’ve never got beat like I beat GSP,” Serra told Santanta Sports as he continues to throw daggers at the former champ. “All the pressure is on GSP. He has to live up to all this BS about him, he has to step into the Octagon with a man who punched his lights out last time. I’m rematching a guy I beat inside one round.”
As usual, the classy St. Pierre doesn’t respond to the trash talking, he would prefer to let his fists do that for him. For the most part, he has said and done all of the right things since his loss to Serra, and seems eager to once again prove himself as the biggest fight of his career approaches.
“I truly believe I’m a better fighter than he is and no matter what he’s going to bring to the table, my focus is on what I’m going to do to him,” said a determined St. Pierre. “I know his strength and what he’s good at, but it’s what I’m going to do to him, not the opposite.”
Regardless of the fight’s outcome, St. Pierre realizes that his kryptonite will always come back to haunt him. The good news for him is that Superman always finds a way to survive.