Georges St-Pierre was born May 19, 1981 in Saint-Isidore, Quebec, to Jim and Louise St-Pierre. St-Pierre had a difficult childhood , attending a school where people would steal his clothing and money. He started out studying Kyokushin karate at age seven by his father and later with a Kyokushin Karate Master to help protect himself against a bully at school , Nikolas Mavrikos.
He took up wrestling and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu after his karate teacher died and also trained in boxing . Before turning pro as a mixed-martial artist, St-Pierre worked as a bouncer at a Montreal night club within the South Shore called Fuzzy Brossard and as a garbageman for six months to cover his school fees and also to buy his MMA equipment such as his Mixed martial arts Shorts and Mixed martial arts Gloves
St-Pierre has trained with a number of groups in a large variety of gyms throughout his fighting career . Ahead of his fight with B.J. Penn at UFC 58, he trained in the Renzo Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy in NYC. St-Pierre obtained his brown belt in BJJ from Renzo Gracie on July 21, 2006. In September 2008, St-Pierre earned his black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu below Bruno Fernandes.
St-Pierre started training with Rashad Evans, Nathan Marquardt, Keith Jardine, Donald Cerrone, and other qualified Mixed martial arts scrappers at Greg Jackson’s Submission Fighting Gaidojutsu school in New Mexico. Some of Jackson’s students accompanied St-Pierre to Montreal to help prepare him for his fight at UFC 94 against B.J. Penn at the Tristar Gym, including Keith Jardine, Nathan Marquardt, Donald Cerrone and Rashad Evans. Georges’ strength and conditioning coach is Jonathan Chaimberg of Adrenaline Performance Centre in Montral. Georges’ Head Trainer is Firas Zahabi of Zahabi MMA, from the Tristar gym. The pair have cornered all St-Pierre’s latest bouts and continue as his close friends. Presently, St-Pierre studies Muay Thai under Phil Nurse at the Wat in New York City .
St-Pierre had dreamed of becoming a UFC champ since watching Royce Gracie fight in 1993 at UFC 1. St-Pierre had his first unpaid bout when he was only 16 years old. He said, “After i won my first amateur (MMA) fight, I was 16 years old and I defeated a man that was 25. I was merely a Kyokushin karate fighter and also the guy I fought was a boxer. At the time my ground skills were very poor , I didn’t know anything on the ground .” St-Pierre won his fight by knockout , going low with several leg kicks after which going high with a head kick.
St-Pierre’s pro debut was against Branden Macfadden and the fight ended in the very first round to-knockout win by St-Pierre. In only his second fight, St-Pierre’s challenge for the UCC belt against Justin Bruckmann. He won by an arm bar in the first round. He then went on and defended his title two more times . The UCC aka Universal Combat Challenge was then converted to TKO Major League MMA and he was called the champion. He fought on November 29, 2003 against Pete Spratt in a non-title bout at TKO 14. St-Pierre foiled Spratt using a rear naked choke in the first round. Next his second win in the Ultimate fighting championship , he faced Matt Hughes at Ultimate fighting championship 50 for the vacant Ultimate fighting championship Welterweight Championship. Despite a competitive performance against the far more experienced fighter, St-Pierre tapped out to an armbar submission with only 1 second remaining in the very first round. The loss was the first of St-Pierre’s career and that he has since admitted he was in awe of Hughes going into the championship bout. Since then he has come to be among the finest fighters on the planet.
When starting MMA be sure to buy the best Mixed Martial Arts Shorts and MMA Glove as these are the most important part of MMA. This article, Learn About GSP is released under a creative commons attribution licence.