Georges St-Pierre beat Matt Serra for the UFC welterweight title at UFC 83 tonight, thrilling his hometown fans in Montreal with a dominant performance to avenge his knockout loss in 2007.
St-Pierre controlled the fight throughout and won by a second round TKO. Early on he effectively went for takedowns, and as the fight went on he increasingly landed solid strikes. The referee stopped the fight late in the second when they were on the ground and Serra had no answer for St-Pierre's strikes.
Serra entered the Octagon as the champion, although St-Pierre was technically the interim champion because Serra had been out of commission with a back injury. There is now no doubt; St-Pierre is the one and only champion of the welterweight division. Some will also consider him the best fighter in the sport of MMA regardless of weight class.
The crowd was a huge factor in the first UFC card ever in Canada; we noted the crowd as we live blogged both the main event and the undercard.
St-Pierre improves his professional mixed martial arts record to 16-2; Serra falls to 9-5.
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Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 2)
1. What a joke the Pierre-Serra fight was. Serra = One hit wonder.
Posted at 12:27AM on Apr 20th 2008 by aaorn W
2. I knew GSP would kick Serra all over the octagon.. The first time Cerra won was a FLUKE and he looked so JUICED up he could have beat King Kong.. Welcome back to earth Matt.. Hope you enjoyed your ONE moment with the title.. Because it will never happen again.. Now you should retire you will just go further down from now on..
Posted at 12:35AM on Apr 20th 2008 by Dave Gabriel
3. I dont think the fight was a joke. It just shows St. Pierre is really a bad ass. He is going to be on top for a while.
Posted at 1:09AM on Apr 20th 2008 by rob
4. I cannot logically think of anyone in the welterweight division that can beat GSP. I have an idea of a bout that I would think every UFC fan would want to see. The 2 fighters im referring to are one division apart and both hold belts, one of them would have to go in the others division and adjust their weight slightly. Anderson Silva vs. George St. Pierre. Both appear to be unstoppable by anyone in their division and the weight issue would not be that hard to be met by either fighter. Anyone have a prediction of who would win if this were ever to happen?(though I have serious doubt it will)
Posted at 1:36AM on Apr 20th 2008 by PB&J
5. I was there it was incredible.
I want to thank Nate Quarry fr giving is Cap to my son after the fight. and also thank Rich franklin for jumping and giving him a high five after the match
UFC fighters are great people and deserve much respect. Especially class acts like tonight
Posted at 1:59AM on Apr 20th 2008 by Frederick
6. GSP dominates. Who's going to beat him at 170? Lutter disappoints out of shape again.
Posted at 2:02AM on Apr 20th 2008 by Costales
7. The Real JSP is just too much for the 170.lb. division.
The fight was no contest!
Posted at 2:37AM on Apr 20th 2008 by Tedfio1
8. It's just too bad Serra's 15 minutes of fame lasted a full calendar year. What a joke. He should apologize to Dana White. GSP has got to be considered the best pound for pound. He has absolutely no weakness. The closest thing to a weakness is he's too nice and respectful.
This was even more one sided than when GSP crushed Hughes the last time around. GSP tossed Serra around like it was a weight mismatch or something. For being a brash loud-mouth throughout the year, Serra looked hopeless and I began to feel sorry for him about 2 minutes into the match. He was thoroughly outclassed.
Like the Joe Rogan-wannabe said, there are wrestlers with higher pedigree and collegiate titles, but nobody can out-wrestle GSP.
Posted at 3:27AM on Apr 20th 2008 by Tex Big Balls
9. Yeah I have to agree with the rest of you guys, GSP is the closest thing to being a true mix martial artist in this day and age. Great striking ability with both hands and feet,Power & strength and execellent ground fighting skills makes him the total package. Not to say that's he's unbeatable but if you write it down on paper he's easierly one of the best fighters in the world at his weight class period. It what the late Bruce Lee meant about being a true Martial Artist, having the ability to fight on all levels of combat.
Posted at 5:18AM on Apr 20th 2008 by JohnLeo2002
10. I went 5-5 on that card... GSP WOW thank you for that
Posted at 10:35AM on Apr 20th 2008 by Darin
11. What A Fight, I was there, and everybody in the stands knew how helpless Serra truly was
Posted at 10:52AM on Apr 20th 2008 by MMAFAN
12. Bring GSP to HNL and fight BJ, youll see who is
the Champion!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted at 11:33AM on Apr 20th 2008 by BlairHawaii
13. Random thoughts:
Kalib Starnes needs to find another profession;
GSP is really effing good and he's getting better. He beat Hughes and Serra like an 8th grader vs. 3rd graders--utter and complete domination.
What's even more mind boggling is how he beats world class wrestlers at their own game so badly--bizarre.
Serra was surprisingly gracious in defeat.
If you saw GSP in street clothes in a bar and didn't know who he was, you might think he was a swishy Euroflash punk instead of one of the baddest men on the planet--moral of the story: don't make pre-judgements and try to avoid fights.
Not all French people are soft;
As good as GSP is, he could not hurt any of the Top 50 MMA big men and would get squashed--size matters.
Most MMA fighters are on PED's of some sort--to deny that is a little naive...I might be, too if I were in that business.
Posted at 11:49AM on Apr 20th 2008 by ventures360
14. I was actually kind of glad that GSP won because now he will most likely have to fight matt hughes for keep his title which means a knockout by the great matt hughes.
Posted at 1:12PM on Apr 20th 2008 by Jason
15. ROFL @ #14.
Matt Hughes wants no part of St.Pierre. GSP is getting stronger with every match and Hughes is going the wrong direction.
Posted at 4:12PM on Apr 20th 2008 by milton thuroughgood III
16. The only fight that was set up by Serra's loss to GSP was a showdown with Hughes vs.Serra. My guess is that Hughes will retire if he beats Serra. A fourth meeting with Hughes vs. GSP would end like the last two.
Posted at 7:03PM on Apr 20th 2008 by Gary
17. So many people knock Matt Cerra;weird...and so many are not even remotely close or good enough to enter the octagon themselves let alone have a remote chance in hell against him......BIG MOUTHS !!! Why not give credit where it is due? At least he enters the arena and puts on a good showing;not just with his internet rubbish like i am reading...
Congrats Matt for...1)holding the title and 2)stepping up and not just fighting but enjoying your time there.
To all UFC and MMA practitioners,i dip my hat to all of you,great courage and ability just to make it.
Posted at 10:38PM on Apr 20th 2008 by Contractkills
18. This journalist,David Smith, has deleted some of the postings that I and my friends have posted.
This guys has no idea what he is writing about. He has no clue about the fighting disciplines, at all.
Just a lousy job
Posted at 11:00PM on Apr 20th 2008 by Ross
19. GSP is the man we all know that and it was just proved again that he is the most bad ass and that no matter what he gonna come back and beat the hell outta u look at his only two losses he came back and was hell bent and stomped both of them into the ground but no disrespect meant to either of the fighters above they are both great competitors
Posted at 1:13AM on Apr 21st 2008 by Tub
20. I was honestly disappointed about the fight. Matt Serra didnt do anything. I think he got too focused on working that sweep. A fight is not the best time to "work" a move. As for GSP, I think he is a solid stand up fighter, and definitely has some strong wrestling moves combined with his brown belt in jiu jitsu. But he did have the height and reach advantage on Serra and Hughes, which makes a huge difference. But I think that I would like to see BJ Penn move back up and take on GSP. Lets see GSP take that fight to the ground!
Posted at 1:13AM on Apr 21st 2008 by Josh