UFC 154: Legacy At Stake For Georges St-Pierre

The Knee

Georges St-Pierre was set to make his seventh consecutive title defense against Nick Diaz at UFC 137. After Diaz flipped his lid under the pressure cooker of a high profile UFC spectacle, Condit was moved up from the co-main event to the title shot on executive order by Dana White. It was not meant to be. With less than two weeks before the card in Vegas, GSP blew out his knee during training. The injury was a bad one, a tear to his anterior cruciate ligament. The fix was an autograft of his patellar tendon to serve as the replacement material for the ACL. The patellar tendon is larger than the other option, the hamstring, but the disadvantages include increased pain during recovery ... and during activities that rely on the bending and explosion of the knee. Basically, everything required in mixed martial arts. This is where the future of St-Pierre gets cloudy. Not only is he facing his toughest opponent ever with a penchant for kicks aimed right at the knee, GSP is also facing him with a surgically repaired knee (not to mention 560+ days of ring rust). For any other fighter, this damaged ACL would have less impact on their overall game. But for GSP, his superior athleticism is what makes him so transcendent. Consider the statistics that rely on speed, footwork, and explosiveness: Takedown Accuracy - 77.3% (1st in UFC history) Takedown Defense - 88.0% (3rd in UFC history) Significant Strikes Landed - 977 (1st in UFC history) Significant Strike Defense - 75.6% (2nd in UFC history) Will GSP have the same speed and quickness on a surgically rebuilt knee? If he doesn't, how much will it impact his cage abilities. It has to be significant. Consider now the total length of his time in the octagon - 4 hours, 13 minutes or fourth all time in UFC history. The only names above him are all older and with more fights - Tito Ortiz (+6 years, +14 fights), BJ Penn (+2 years, +2 fights), Randy Couture (+15 years, +6 fights). GSP (31 years old, 24 fights) has put an enormous toll on his body faster than any other fighter in the UFC by having longer matches at an earlier age. Look at what happened to other uber-athletic greats in combat sports that followed the same pattern, fighters like Roy Jones or Mike Tyson. Over night they became shadows of their formerly dominant selves. If Georges St-Pierre has ever been vulnerable ... that time is right now. Click "next" below to read part 3...