The Brilliance of Georges St. Pierre
by Mike Fagan on Feb 1, 2009 1:30 PM EST
in MMA News
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Georges St. Pierre's thrashing of B.J. Penn impressed the hell out of me. St. Pierre, after a slow paced first round, dominated rounds two through four causing the doctor and Penn's corner to stop the fight before the fifth round.
St. Pierre's performance spoke for itself. I found the real genius when I heard him talk about his gameplan with MMA Live following the fight. St. Pierre on the basic gameplan:
Well, B.J. Penn is a very fast starter and he has very fast hands. He's got small shoulders if you look at him, like boxing shoulders. So, I wanted to make the first couple rounds a wrestling match. A lot of clinching. A lot of moving around for him to carry my weight so the blood goes to his shoulders. His shoulders would have been heavy. His hands would not come out as fast as usual. Then, after that, pick him apart standing later in the fight.
That shouldn't surprise many people. In fact, it's exactly what I thought he needed to do to win the fight. St. Pierre revealed the brilliant aspect of his gameplan following a question from Frank Mir regarding his lack of kicks:
Actually, the thing with B.J. Penn is that I know he's seen a lot of my fights. When you go into war, you don't want to show all of your weapons. [After] all the talking, I wanted to show some different weapons. That's why I didn't really shoot from far [away] because I was expecting him to try knees to my head. I was faking a lot, if you saw, because he has very fast reaction time, but a slow reset time. All that, I've been studying. When I do something, he reacts very fast. Faster than I, faster than most fighters in the UFC. But if I fake something, and he reacts - and the brain is just a muscle - he takes a lot of time to reset and to be able to react as fast for the first shot. He had a very slow reset time, so my strategy was to fake him, make him react, and then attack him.
You still hear plenty of fighters who enter a fight without studying tape of their opponent. They reason that the dynamics of a fight changes too quickly to allow for it or their opponents will surely have improved the mistakes and tendencies from previous fights. Falling in love, they say, with a gameplan could prove disastrous if you don't get what you expect from your opponent.
St. Pierre's implementation of his camp's gameplan blows that idea out of the water. It's still important to be able to change tactics on the fly (and St. Pierre trainer Greg Jackson has said he likes to have a plan B and C ready at all times), but the benefits of knowing the idiosyncrasies of an adversary provide such an edge in the Octagon.
Following the fight, I felt let down by Penn. It looked like all the critics of his conditioning had been proven right again. After listening to St. Pierre articulate the blueprint designed for him, it became very apparent that GSP's team had created a picture perfect approach to the fight. B.J. simply didn't have a chance.
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I believe, if you ask him, he’ll give all the strategy credit to Greg Jackson.
I’m so, so happy that Cerrone got in with them.
by Derek Suboticki on Feb 1, 2009 3:11 PM EST up reply actions
I know that he was trying to counter the over hand right but it wasn’t working. He said he was going to bait him into throwing the over hand right. He was on the right path with the kicks but he couldn’t continue to allow all those takedowns after the triangle wasn’t working from his back.
"Stop smiling you are about to be punched in the face !"
Agreed but.....
Cerrone did fail to execute an intelligent game plan in his recent title fight with Varner. Seriously, did Cerrone think it would be a good idea to take right fist after right fist to the face without moving his head and allow take down after take down? Cerrone is a tough dude and he can take a punch, I get that, but in a fight scored by points and not toughness his plan was terribly flawed. I saw that he planned to catch Varner in a triangle from his back(almost did at the end of the 2nd) but Varner was ready for that as evidenced by Varner’s submission defense throughout the remainder of the fight. Hopefully Cerrone comes with a better plan for the rematch.
"Stop smiling you are about to be punched in the face !"
It’s about wrestling – he’ll tell you that his wrestling sucks. He’ll get better.
by Derek Suboticki on Feb 1, 2009 5:45 PM EST up reply actions
He’s mentally as good as he is physically that coupled with his age and ability to stay humble will make him the best ever, “THE BEST EVA”. faints I feel are grossly under used even if its just to gauge how your opponent will react to a potential technique when you go to use it next.
YAMATO DAMASHII
It’s hard to go against GSP since he moved over to Jackson’s training camp. He was actually similar to BJ right now before that. He was riding along on his unparalleled natural athleticism, and was letting yes men and hangers-on ride him. Since the Serra loss he became brutally honest. He found people that gave him the hard truth, and made the tough decisions to achieve the level he dreamed of. You can see more of the same with Machida and Jones. Down to earth honest people that are grounded in reality.
I’d love to see BJ do this. The problem is that BJ’s people are his family. It would be hard to cut that loose.
You can see GSP’s calm and inner peace in between rounds. His eyes almost have a glazed over look, as if nothing can penetrate to his mind’s stillness. It’s pretty awesome. Of course that could change if someone suddenly lands a flying knee to his face.
Greg Jackson is awesome.
I can’t remember if it was before the 2nd round or before the 3rd round but Jackson exhibited what I think is his genius. GSP sat down on the stool and Greg Jackson says, “If you want to take him dow you have to pick him up, but forget about that. Kickbox him thats what you have to do.” (something like that). What I hear there is a trainer that sees his fighter trying to do something that he doesn’t want him to do. Jackson saw that GSP wanted to take BJ down so the first thing Jackson does is tell GSP how to do that. The thing is, Jackson doesn’t want him to do that so he immediately instructs him to kickbox but only after telling him how to do what he is trying to do. That’s genius in my opinion and it is how you manipulate your fighter. Tell him how to do what he is trying to do but then instruct him on what he should be doing. During the KAro fight Jackson made Karo repeat his instructions back to him in order to see if he was listening or not.
The fact that GSP and co. are thinking about directing blood to certain parts of Penn’s body in order to control the speed of his punches is just plain scary. Attacking after a fake because of a fighter’s sow reset time is also really scary. Attacking during the reset time is a strategy that I saw almost working for Cote during his fight with Anderson Silva. This shit is what I am most interested in when it comes to MMA. Planning in War is the key to victory. Being able to think clearly and execute a plan during the heat of battle is a fighter’s greatest strength. Calm in the chaos. It’s what sets Anderson Silva, GSP, Lyoto Machida and Miguel Torres apart from other fighters.
"Stop smiling you are about to be punched in the face !"
by Warhand on Feb 1, 2009 2:12 PM EST reply actions 1 recs
These guys are just elevating the game. Brilliant!
When we heard GSPs stratehgeeee, my friends and I looked at each other like “Woah WTF?” Awesome!
by xFenixKnightx on Feb 1, 2009 2:27 PM EST up reply actions
I agree, BJ let a lot of people down. He said he was going to take this time to prepare himself correctly, to train and be in great shape. His skills are undeniable, and having a chance to see someone, anyone, push themselves to get the maximum out of their potential is inspirational. BJ did not do this, GSP did. BJ let himself down, let’s see what he does in response to this humiliation.
All that being said, the Vaseline use is way out of bounds. Vaseline does not just wipe away, everyone knows that. It’s against the rules and the commission needs to seriously address it.
Penn let himself down. Again. How the heck do you not prepare properly for what was to be a) the biggest UFC fight ever, and b) your own idea? After all, wasn’t this Penn’s very own vanity project? Talk about getting egg on your own face. Even Fitch did better.
Dude, BJ didn’t let anyone down. GSP’s wrestling was far too good; everyone knew that would be the gameplan to use against BJ and he did it to perfection. It is what it is. GSP is just better at 170.
I heart Cock Chestnar
GSP is a better fighter, last night showed it. BJ gassed again, no excuse for that.
by dualdiagnosis on Feb 1, 2009 3:22 PM EST up reply actions
What did you expect him to do? Try getting pounded like that over and over. Gassing is not an excuse for last night. He just got GnP’ed.
I heart Cock Chestnar
What did I expect him to do? I expected that he would actually give 100% to his training. He was gassed after the first rd, again.
I’m not claiming that if he was in top shape he could have won, what disappoints me is that he did not honor his God given talent with the hard work and determination that GSP showed in his training.
by dualdiagnosis on Feb 1, 2009 4:18 PM EST up reply actions
But if I fake something, and he reacts – and the brain is just a muscle – he takes a lot of time to reset and to be able to react as fast for the first shot. He had a very slow reset time, so my strategy was to fake him, make him react, and then attack him.
GSP is unreal. Team Jackson is unreal. There’s strategy, and then there’s strategy. Wow.
Wow…I am in awe of this strategy…I take back any whiff of accusation of LnP I might have insinuated.
Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better. -Samuel Beckett
by Scott C. Broussard on Feb 1, 2009 2:57 PM EST reply actions
BJ’s chin and defense was excellent. Had it been anyone else, it wold have ended earlier. GSP’s ground and pound was unreal. I think he’s moved up another level for this fight.
I heart Cock Chestnar
but it can be exercised and made stronger, sharper, and quicker. its weird.
"Stop smiling you are about to be punched in the face !"
All body tissues behave the same way,
but it really is striking just how similar CNS tissue (brain matter) and muscle are, functionally.
There is no such thing as innocence, only degrees of guilt.
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