ESPN Mixed Martial Arts

At the age of 31, UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre has accomplished so much that rumors of a two-fight retirement plan shouldn't come as a shock.

St-Pierre (24-2) holds the record for total UFC wins (along with Matt Hughes) at 18 and is second in title defenses with eight. He ranks No. 1 in the UFC in career takedowns, takedown accuracy and total strikes.

From August 2007 to April 2011, St-Pierre won a record 33 consecutive rounds.

Prior to his recent title defense over Nick Diaz at UFC 158, St-Pierre's former manager Stephane Patry penned a column for a Canadian website that outlined St-Pierre's plan of two more fights -- a title defense against Johny Hendricks and a "super fight" against Anderson Silva -- and then retirement.

Whether or not that comes to fruition, ESPN.com decided to speak with some of the brightest minds in the sport on what has fueled St-Pierre's historic career, what it will take to disrupt his success and whether or not he's still at his peak.

"We kind of always knew he would eventually become a champion ... "

Pat Miletich, former UFC champion, longtime trainer, analyst: I used to go up to Tristar Gym years and years ago because my wife is from Montreal. I would teach a bit here and there when those guys were younger. Georges was always very respectful. He actually came into one of my seminars and sat in and watched when I was teaching up there at different spots in Montreal. We kind of always knew he would eventually become a champion. It was just something you could tell. Before Matt [Hughes] even fought him the first time, Matt and I both publicly said in interviews, "Georges is going to be the world champ. Just not yet."

Matt Hume, trainer, matchmaker, ambassador: The moment I recognized he was a very special martial artist was when he did Abu Dhabi (Submission Wrestling championships). He went against a guy named Otto Olsen. Otto Olsen, the first time he did Abu Dhabi, he went all the way to the finals against Marcelo Garcia with only six months training. Otto was great. He got really good at head control and started destroying people. The next Abu Dhabi, his first match was against Georges St-Pierre, who wasn't known as a great grappler, and he beat Otto that day. He shot a double on him, which is something he's very well known for now and escaped what a lot of people call the D'Arce now. Georges' posture on his shots was perfect and his explosiveness and awareness of where his head was when he got to the ground. That was the moment that told me this guy really gets out of his element. He really learns.

Matt Hughes, former UFC champion, went 1-2 in three fights against St-Pierre: Usually when I tie up with somebody, I feel I'm stronger than the other person and with Georges, I can't say I was stronger than him. I'm a big welterweight. I probably cut more weight than Georges does, which you think would give me a strength advantage but I didn't feel I had that advantage against Georges.

Miletich: After the first time Matt fought him and beat him, I asked Matt, "He's pretty strong isn't he?" We were walking through the tunnel back to the locker room and he looked at me and said, "You're damn right he's strong."

Hughes: I don't think he's a great wrestler. I think if you put him on a wrestling mat against Josh Koscheck, Josh would beat him up. What Georges does so well is mixes everything up and camouflages his takedowns with his striking. When you're out there against Georges, you don't know if he's going to kick, punch, close the distance and gets his hands on you or take a shot. He's pretty one-dimensional on the ground. You don't see him going for many submissions. He is really there to keep people down. But he's effective at his striking. He likes to stand up in people's guard and that gives him power in his punches. But his No. 1 thing is to keep people down.

Marc Laimon, grappling coach, trains Hendricks: One of my black belts and I were talking about this and he was saying St-Pierre kind of reminds him of a guy who pushes to half-guard, does enough to get the advantage to win and stalls the rest of the match. Against Nick Diaz, for somebody to talk so much trash, I didn't see that killer instinct. I saw a guy win and stay busy and active and do enough to win, but not a scary, killer, bloodthirsty guy wanting to kill you. I see a pro athlete doing his job very well.

Mark Munoz, UFC middleweight, NCAA wrestling champion: Pure wrestling is a totally different sport than MMA wrestling. In MMA wrestling, you can't shoot to your knees anymore. If you shoot to your knees, you're being stopped because there's too much distance to cover when you change levels. You've just got to explode and run through them in a power double and that's what Georges St-Pierre does. He is such a gifted athlete at first-step explosion and he's got long arms.

Hughes: He does everything pretty well. His lead strike, I believe, is his left leg. Usually, it's people's rear leg but I figured out real quick his left leg in the front of his stance is what he has all his power with.

Hume (on St-Pierre's intimidation factor): It's not the same extent as [an Anderson Silva.] Anderson put Rich Franklin's nose on the other side of his face and what he did to Forrest Griffin, making him miss the punches and dropping him with the jab -- it's the striking aspects, getting the bones broke in your face from an unprotected knee bone, those things scare people. I think with Georges, people don't look at him the same way as Anderson. They see it more as, "I don't know how to beat this guy." Not so much, "This guy is really going to hurt me bad."

Laimon: He still does things very well. The timing on his double leg is impeccable. He's still very fun to watch but when he was going for the title and he murdered [Frank] Trigg and murdered Hughes -- oh man. That guy is a killer and I don't see that guy anymore.

"What's going to beat Georges, is a hit ... "

Hume: You don't make a game plan for Georges St-Pierre. You make a game plan to be the best you can be. You have to try to be better than him at every aspect of the game, which includes the mental aspect, conditioning and technical aspects. If you're better than him at every aspect, then you can beat him.

Munoz: The guy that beats St-Pierre is the guy that is able to counter the jab. Able to circle, have good footwork, and counter while moving his feet. Not countering in front of him, because that's where GSP is able to capitalize -- when he jabs or throws punches, the other guy counter punches and then he drops down and shoots.

Miletich: You have to take him out of his comfort zone. It's not like there are a lot of guys out there who are going to take him down and submit him, but a guy who can actually take Georges down and make him nervous on his back a little bit is certainly going to help. In terms of striking, guys that use feints and fakes very well and they've got to be able to do that better than him. When somebody is throwing feints and fakes at you, they're trying to make you guess on what's real and what's not. When you're not able to do that (as good as St-Pierre), he is sticking you with the jab. Then he's able to progressively chips away at you because he feints the jab and throws the cross. Then feints the cross and throws the hook. It goes a lot deeper than that, but a guy who can do that better than Georges and throw it back in his face and has the power to hurt him standing, plus the technique to take him down, is pretty much what it's going to take.

Hughes: That's a very easy question for me to answer. What's going to beat Georges is a hit. You can tell it in the way he fights. He does not want to get hit. You see what happens when he gets hit. Any big hit is going to hurt Georges. My speculation would be that Georges has been hit in practice and he don't like it. This is all my speculation -- that he's been hit, knows his body doesn't like it and he's not going to get hit anymore.

"Johny is a different breed of cat ..."

Miletich: Hendricks is just a mean guy. His mentality is he's just a rough cat. Very good wrestling, very powerful and his left hand can kill a bull. After I saw him slide Martin Kampmann across the canvas like a sheet of ice, you realize how hard he hits. That's a guy I think to a certain extent just says, "I don't give a s--- what you're doing. I'm just going to hit you." Those guys can be tough to fight because they don't bite a lot on your feints and fakes. They don't necessarily move the way they're supposed to. What we're going to see is when Georges starts putting feints and fakes on him, we may see a totally different Johny Hendricks who gets confused. That's very possible.

Munoz: St-Pierre is not going to want it to be a brawl. He's going to want to execute that jab, circle around him, stop shots, drag behind him and take his back. I don't think he's going to be able to hold Johny down. Everybody who wrestled him [in college] had trouble holding him down. What you're going to see Johny do is knee slide -- which is, shoot his knee forward and stand up to his feet. He's not going to stay turtled up. He's going to hand fight, look for wrist control and get up.

Hughes: Being the best wrestler doesn't mean that Georges can't take him down. He disguises things so well that he can get in on somebody by throwing punches, but Georges is going to have to work for it. He's going to have to spend more energy and that's a good thing in a fight -- to make somebody spend energy and take punishment along the way. I think if you look at who Georges has fought, Johny is a bad matchup compared to everybody else.

Laimon: I really think I've got a guy who matches up very well with him and is going to present problems. Johny is a different breed of cat. He operates on a different frequency. He's hungry and I think Georges is ripe for the picking. I think Johny Hendricks is coming into his prime and I see St-Pierre as an unbelievable LaDainian Tomlinson-type guy who is kind of at the [New York] Jets now. He was so dominant, the premiere guy, but if you look recently ... how many guys defend his takedowns? How many guys have been able to get back to his feet? Every time I see Georges, his face is busted up. These guys are putting their hands on him. Georges is hittable and being hittable against a guy like Johny Hendricks isn't good.

"I actually think the [Silva] fight will be pretty close ..."

Hughes: I actually think the fight will be pretty close because of Georges' takedowns. He's going to take him down and control him on the ground. It might not be the most exciting fight because it's going to be a lot of ground game. I don't think Anderson can beat him on the ground, especially with Georges on top. If I had to pick a winner, I might say Georges gets his hand raised.

Hume: Anybody who stands with Anderson is risking what he does to everybody. Anderson has been taken down. He's been mounted. He has been armbarred, but he has survived those things. He has a great ground game, too. Georges has great takedowns. He knows how to put people at their weakness. If you're going to try and fight Anderson at his weakness, it's going to have to be on his back.

Munoz: I think it's a bad matchup for Georges. Anderson is a big 185-pounder. I wouldn't say St-Pierre is a big welterweight. I've seen Anderson upwards of 215 pounds. At the same time, St-Pierre has double leg takedowns, which Anderson has trouble defending at times. I would give Anderson the nod because of his movement on his feet, elusiveness and precise punching.

Miletich: Georges is not going to win that standup fight at all. Anderson will shut down his feints. The victory is going to lie in Georges' ability to take down Anderson, which I think he certainly can. He could take him down and control him all five rounds because he's strong enough to do it. Anderson's takedown defense has gotten better over the years, but I still think Georges could take him down.

Along the way, BJ Penn committed himself to doing only what he wanted. If it wasn't fun, it wasn't worth his time.

To the delight of many people over the past 11 years, that sometimes meant walking into a cage to fight.

So the 33-year-old former UFC welterweight and lightweight champion's decision to end a brief retirement, get off the couch and accept a bout with hotshot Canadian welterweight Rory MacDonald wasn't a surprise. Penn can be impulsive, and time is not on his side; he sought an itch and scratched it.

Oh, he wanted to return. He wanted to put young MacDonald in his place and take another crack at a Tristar Gym fighter. Penn also missed being mentioned in rarefied terms. He wanted that again -- a vain, revealing and honest admission. The same could be said over his concerns about legacy, which, to be fair, are hardly new.

Yet none of these things pushed boundaries, a Penn specialty. What did? Random amped-up drug testing administered by a group unaffiliated with the UFC. Via the Voluntary Anti-Doping Association, Penn and MacDonald are the first fighters in mixed martial arts to undergo urine and blood testing for substances including EPO, human growth hormone and synthetic testosterone. On Wednesday, VADA tested Penn for the third time.

"If I was gonna make a comeback I wanted to make it as safe as I can,” the Hawaiian said last week in the run-up to Saturday’s UFC on Fox 5 event in Seattle. “I’m not saying Rory MacDonald is using steroids. That’s all it is. I’m protecting myself.”

Penn surely didn’t return to the UFC to be tested for drugs, but he wasn’t going to do so without being tested as rigorously as he wanted.

In a nutshell, whether it works out or not, this is how Penn has handled his career.

He angled to make it to the Octagon. He is among a select few fighters who can say he began his career there.

He pushed to fight for a UFC title and did in his fourth contest. Penn, however, wasn't ready for the moment.

He obtained a shot against Matt Hughes at 170 pounds. This time he shocked the world in his debut at the weight and captured the belt.

He coveted a contract with the UFC that allowed him to fight for Japan’s K-1 promotion. That didn’t happen, and it led to a contentious departure from the UFC and an odd sequence of matches that hurt the way his legacy is viewed. He wanted to fight at middleweight and light heavyweight, and he did. And he looked chubby and sluggish, infuriating as it was for fans who love him, away from the Octagon in the midst of his prime.

He desired the UFC welterweight title once more and re-signed with the promotion, though the belt never returned.

He aimed at the UFC lightweight title, the one that eluded him in his fourth fight. This played out the way he hoped when he ran through Jens Pulver.

Because fighting at lightweight, where he appeared dominant, wasn’t challenging enough, Penn eyed a rematch with Georges St-Pierre at 170. He suffered through a rough TKO after 20 minutes. All for an itch he wanted to scratch.

Penn has come off like a happy warrior leading up to Saturday’s card.

He restocked his camp with old faces, tailored, like always, just the way he wants. One Penn associate described the fighter as being "so relaxed and confident. He hasn’t been like this in a while. I’m feeling good about it."

The Prodigy maintains a unique place among fighters. Admittedly not much of a stick-and-ball athlete, Penn was preternaturally talented for MMA. Speed, flexibility, balance, technique -- he possessed it all, yet on the eve of bout No. 27, scuffling at 1-3-1 since 2010, this is a man lamenting that his name is missing from discussions of the best, a man craving a lasting, meaningful legacy.

MacDonald, nearly a head taller than the Hawaiian, suggested thinking like that could get Penn hurt.

"He said he's fighting to get his legacy back," MacDonald said. "I don't know if it's true or not, if it's his motivation or not. But if that is true, if you're fighting for someone's opinion, for some status, it's the wrong reason to fight."

Penn, it so happens, wants his opponents to chirp. Last week he claimed it was wonderful that MacDonald called him fat, among other things. Said Penn: "I couldn't ask for more."

Looking directly at MacDonald during the final pre-fight news conference in Seattle on Thursday, Penn reiterated the point. He wanted to tell the young fighter that he better be ready to live up to his words.

So he did.

"I’m a glass half-empty kind of guy," Penn said. "I don’t want to be known as being good back in the day. I want to be one of the best. I still think I have something left to accomplish."

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From 2008 until August of 2010, Thiago Alves’ strongest asset wasn’t his tremendous striking skills. It was the poker face he wore before each fight.

On the surface, Alves had the look of a man assured of winning. It did not matter who the opposition happened to be -- Matt Hughes, Josh Koscheck, UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre or Jon Fitch -- Alves always gave the impression he would leave the Octagon victorious.

But too often that wasn’t actually what he believed.

On many occasions there was doubt in his mind. Alves wasn’t always 100 percent confident he would be the best man inside the cage on fight night.

The lack of confidence had nothing to do with believing in his skill-set -- he's always believed in his physically abilities; it’s what gave him the strength to step in the cage against top 170-pound competitors. The source of Alves’ doubts would creep in during training camp. He wasn’t comfortable with the folks calling the shots -- his coaches.

In the past, Alves and his handlers weren’t on the same page during training camp and it reduced his confidence and performance on fight night.

After an impressive 2008 campaign in which he registered wins over Hughes and Koscheck, Alves suffered unanimous decision losses to St. Pierre and Fitch.

“For you to step in there and give your best, you have to know that the entire team gave its best, that everything was done right,” Alves told ESPN.com on Tuesday. “If you have any doubts in your mind it’s going to show in the fight.

“It was just a matter of getting the right people behind me, and getting my confidence back. I’m still at American Top Team, but like in every camp there are coaches who come and go. Right before my fight with Koscheck, we [the coaches and I] had a falling out. That dragged on until after the [St. Pierre] camp.

“After that fight [against St. Pierre], I found new people. It took me a few fights to get adjusted to the new coaching staff.”

Alves (19-8) has won two of his three most recent fights and his confidence level is at a career high. He will carry that confidence into his welterweight showdown Friday night against Martin Kampmann. The two meet in the main event at UFC on FX 2 in Sydney.

Kampmann (18-2) is as tough as they come, and is looking to maintain the momentum he regained with a unanimous decision over Rick Story in November. That win allowed Kampmann to halt his losing skid at two.

But Kampmann could be facing his stiffest test as a professional in Alves. The Coconut Creek, Fla.-based Alves appears to be in the best shape of his career, both physically and mentally.

Alves, who has struggled in the past to make the 170-pound limit, gives a large chunk of credit for his turnaround to nutritionist Mike Dolce.

“I brought in Mike Dolce after the Fitch fight and that took me to another level in my career,” Alves said. “My old strength and conditioning coach used to pretty much abuse me when it came to the weight cut. It was painful. It would make me think about quitting my job.

“Since I started working with Mike Dolce, I’ve enjoyed the whole process. Three days before the weigh-in and I’m just 11 pounds over the limit. This has never happened before in my career. And I feel great. I’m ready to fight right now.

“When I know I have the right people behind me and I know I did the right training I know I can go out there and perform at my best. That’s what happened in my last fight [a first-round submission victory over Papy Abedi in November] and that’s exactly what’s going to happen Friday night.”

OMAHA, Neb. -- Don’t look now, but the UFC welterweight division is quietly making a case for the promotion’s premier weight class.

Rising 170-pound prospect Jake Ellenberger made another splash Wednesday, outpointing a very determined Diego Sanchez in an early "Fight of the year" candidate. It was a big win for the 26-year-old and yet another significant fight in the division -- a division that’s been in big need of significant fights in years past.

As of late, this group of 170-pounders hasn’t exactly been raising heart rates. Not long ago, fans clamored for a fight between Josh Koscheck and Jon Fitch not only because of the "teammate versus teammate" angle, but because there weren’t many intriguing options left for each of them.

Dan Hardy earned a title shot in 2010 based on a couple split decisions and a knockout of Rory Markham. Jake Shields earned one a year later for being really good in a different division, fighting for a different promotion.

Not only did the weight class fail in numerous attempts to dethrone champion Georges St. Pierre, for 33 straight rounds, it failed to earn a 10-9 score against him.

Not to say the division has been downright awful, but as far as areas where the UFC needed new blood, it was near the top.

It’s safe to say that new blood has arrived.

Ellenberger represents one of the most intriguing future opponents to St. Pierre. Ahead of him on the division’s ladder is interim champion Carlos Condit. Around him are Johny Hendricks, Rory MacDonald and Nick Diaz. Below him are still Josh Koscheck, John Fitch, Thiago Alves, Martin Kampmann and Jake Shields.

Basically, iron sharpens iron. And there’s finally a ton of iron at 170 pounds.

“There’s no easy fight, that’s for sure,” Ellenberger said. “[The division] is stacked with young, hungry guys. I’ve been that guy for awhile.”

The influx of new talent at welterweight has more than likely killed any shot of a super fight between St. Pierre and UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva -- but if that’s a casualty the UFC and its fans should be able to live with.

This division has played a major part in the organization since Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta purchased the company in 2001. Even though it may have never eclipsed the light heavyweight division in terms of popularity, it was widely viewed as arguably the deepest in talent.

“The welterweight division has been a massive division for us since the first day,” UFC president Dana White said. “From Pat Miletich to Matt Hughes to Carlos Newton.”

For the first time in years, the welterweight division is capable of generating the type of excitement it drew during those years. Part of that excitement comes from the perception one of these guys can beat St. Pierre.

“This guy [Ellenberger], in my opinion, is tougher than St. Pierre,” Sanchez said. “He has a better chin than GSP. This guy is strong and he’s a warrior.”

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Speaking from experience, it's easy to appear foolish when analyzing mixed martial arts. Sport in general lends itself to the unpredictable, but there is, it seems, based on what I’ve come to know about MMA over the last 18 years, a special place reserved on the "And you get paid for this?" rung of the "expert" totem pole when it comes to predicting what’s next in the fistic universe.

For that reason, it can feel at times trifling to make an attempt at context. If anything can ( and does) happen in MMA, it's simple sense to question the necessity of perspective, be it regular divisional rankings or, in this case, suggesting one fighter is better than the rest.

Shut up and enjoy the fights, right? Well, I never bought into that way of thinking. I see value in this sort of discussion, and will try here and now to illustrate that.

Save politics, is there an industry that thrives on embellishment more than sport? MMA observers know this well. So when I tell you that Dan Henderson is the most accomplished mixed martial artist America has produced, please take it for what it's worth. But I’ll assure you at a minimum, I believe it to be true. And I think if you look at everything Henderson has accomplished since he entered the sport in 1997, no American fighter -- not Chuck Liddell, Matt Hughes, Randy Couture, B.J. Penn, Quinton Jackson nor anyone else -- can claim his level of sustained success.

Keep in mind, this is a man with eight losses -- such is the slim margin between triumph and failure in which fighters like Henderson operate. Eight losses. As much as I'd like it to be different, if only because it would deliver an added strain of credibility to the sport, the last two decades have proven MMA isn't a profession that yields perfection. Hardly. That threshold differs sharply from boxing, particularly if a combatant is consistently tested like Henderson has been. Perhaps that changes as the latest crop does their thing. Who's going to defeat Jon Jones? Dominick Cruz looks untouchable at 135 pounds. Frankie Edgar flat out refuses to lose. Who knows, 10 years from now, one of them could be written about in similar tones to this trumpeting of Henderson. But not yet.

So as MMA approaches its 20th anniversary of the UFC era, Henderson, all guts and guile, resides at the top of my American born-and-bred list.

What separates him from some of the decorated fighters I mentioned above?

First, let's deal with his setbacks, because if there's an argument to be made against Henderson, it would be found there. Wanderlei Silva. Ricardo Arona. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira.
Kazuo Misaki. Quinton Jackson. Anderson Silva. Jake Shields.

Misaki and Shields is the pair that should raise some eyebrows. The Misaki fight came four months after Henderson defeated the tough Japanese middleweight and, putting it mildly, he was completely disinterested in a rematch. For that reason, this one is considered by most to be an aberration. Henderson, a two-division champion in Pride, essentially no-showed.

As for Shields, Henderson walked into that fight hampered by neck and back issues. Still, he almost knocked Shields out in the opening round. And maybe it’s worth crediting Shields, who survived an onslaught many fighters could not have.

As for the rest? Well, Henderson is either on equal footing, having picked up wins in other contests, or there’s no shame to be found in losing to Anderson Silva.

Each great mixed martial artist has losses and setbacks to contend with, so in this way there’s hardly a discernible difference between Henderson and the rest of the bunch.

But if you’re looking for an argument in the affirmative, let’s not gloss over the fact that at the age of 41 he has, insofar as names of the vanquished opposition, orchestrated one of his most impressive streaks of his career. Some might say that Henderson’s success at an age better suited for retirement is tainted because he competes under the treatment and benefit of hormone replacement therapy. Without the prescription, would he have romped to similar results? No. He admits as much. Whatever side you come down on, though, it’s indisputable that he’s playing within the rules. So there’s that.

As for the wins and the wars and all the stuff that makes Henderson my choice as the best American mixed martial artist since the sport emerged in the States in 1993, you really can’t do much better. Last Saturday against Mauricio Rua, Henderson displayed everything that makes him terrific. This doesn’t necessarily make him better than Liddell, Hughes, Couture, Penn or Jackson. They all reached the highest level of the sport and delivered similar moments.

In the final analysis, Henderson deserves this recognition because of the fast start to his career; his accomplishments across multiple weight divisions; his record in high-stakes tournaments; the fact that his win-loss record is peppered with consistently grade-A opposition; and his recent successes.

Go ahead and argue that there are American fighters with résumés equal to Henderson’s. Maybe that’s the case. But as best as I can tell, I’ve yet to see one that’s any better.

Hall of famer Matt Hughes holds the all-time record for UFC wins (18) and appearances (25). The 37-year-old, a two-time welterweight champion, lost to Josh Koscheck by first-round technical knockout at UFC 135 on Saturday in Denver, perhaps bringing to a close the career of one of the sport’s most accomplished fighters. More »