Interesting outlook on St. Pierre's and Serra's career in regards to striking and takedowns.

Takedown Attempts
Georges St. Pierre: 41/50 (82.0%)
Matt Serra: 26/116 (22.4%)

Takedowns Defensed
Georges St. Pierre: 11/46 (23.9%)
Matt Serra: 16/25 (64.0%)

Strikes Attempted
Georges St. Pierre: 367/694 (52.9%)
Matt Serra: 133/390 (34.1%)

Strikes Defensed
Georges St. Pierre: 120/355 (33.8%)
Matt Serra: 177/373 (47.5%)

Submissions Attempted
Georges St. Pierre: 18
Matt Serra: 12

Submissions Defensed
Georges St. Pierre: 7
Matt Serra: 5

Guard Passes Attempted
Georges St. Pierre: 68
Matt Serra: 40

Guard Passes Defensed
Georges St. Pierre: 6
Matt Serra: 8

What's this mean? 82% of the time when St. Pierre shoots for a takedown, he gets it. Only 24% of time when an opponent shoots for a takedown against St. Pierre do they actually get it. This means that his athleticism and explosion is too much for any natural wrestler. In his last four fights against natural wrestlers - Koscheck, Hughes (x2), and Sherk - the wrestlers have only secured 7.7% (1/13) of their takedown attempts against Georges St. Pierre. The only guy to land one was Koscheck. And he went 1/4 in their fight. Hell, in his last five fights against pure wrestlers which includes all three against Hughes, the wrestlers went 3/20 (15.0%) on their takedown attempts. Needless to say, don't go into a fight against St. Pierre looking for the takedown. Look for him to go for it himself and work his way into your world if you are a jiu-jitsu guy, like Serra is. Conversely, Serra is not good at all working for takedowns. He's had six fights in his career where he's looked for more than ten takedowns. In only one of those fights did he even get 50% of those attempts. He has had fights where he has gone 1/16 (Lytle), 1/28 (Thomas), 1/17 (Penn), 4/13 (Edwards), and 2/13 (Carter). Needless to say, I think Serra realizes that he can't takedown superior athletes to himself so that's why I believe he's at an advantage during this fight. He knows what St. Pierre wants to do. He knows St. Pierre wants to explode and get Serra down to the ground. But, Serra is comfortable off of his back. In his career, Serra has attempted twelve submissions while he's been able to pass guard a remarkable forty times. On the flip side, only five submissions have been attempted against him and only eight times has his guard been passed. And that was all by one man. Karo Parisyan. A common opponent that Serra has with Georges St. Pierre in their careers. Against Serra, Karo had two submission attempts and eight guard passes. Against St. Pierre, Karo had four submission attempts and two guard passes. In each fight, Karo was able to neutrulize the other's ground game but Serra was able to go for a submission attempt while Georges was completely shut out on the ground. For St. Pierre, due to the more fights he's fought, he's attempted more submissions and guard passes than Serra. The striking goes without question to St. Pierre in this one. The fact that he's landed more strikes than has been thrown at him is simply amazing. To land at a near 53% clip is insane. Not to mention the fact that he's getting hit just 34% of the time. Against his two smaller, stocky opponents - Sherk and Serra - St. Pierre has landed 57/115 (49.5%). However, he was only 4/20 (20.0%) against Serra. On the flip side, those two went 27/79 (34.2%) against him. Serra was 16/36 (44.4%) in their first fight. After looking at the numbers, you wonder how Serra can even last five minutes let alone win. The answer lies in the ground game of Serra and his heavy hands. One punch and it might just be nighty-night for the French-Canadian, St. Pierre. I look for St. Pierre to get the takedown two minutes in and for Serra to catch him with something on the ground. Should be an interesting fight now that I've looked at the metrics and numbers.