GSP REMEMBERS HIS FIRST FIGHT
‘I lost it viciously,’ he tells Stu Cowan
UFC middleweight champ Georges St-Pierre still remembers the first time he got into a fight — vividly.
“Yes, I lost it viciously,” StPierre recalled with a big laugh.
It wasn’t funny at the time, though. St-Pierre was a 10-yearold growing up in the tiny municipality of St-Isidore and was constantly bullied at school.
“During class, I wasn’t focusing on what the teacher was saying,” he recalled.
“I was focusing on how I’m going to get to my bus without getting beat up by the guys who were waiting for me outside.”
On a cold, winter day, St-Pierre and a couple of his friends were walking to the school bus when three bigger bullies started spitting on them. St-Pierre described himself and his friends as “geeks.”
Once he got on the bus, StPierre took off his jacket and saw all the frozen spit on the back and a fire erupted inside him.
He had recently started learning martial arts, inspired by the Karate Kid and Jean-Claude Van Damme films, and tried to convince one of his friends to go back with him to fight the bullies.
His friend responded: “You’re crazy! I’m going back on the bus.”
St-Pierre went back by himself to fight the bullies, wrapping his knapsack around his fist, ready to swing at the biggest one first.
But just as St-Pierre swung, the big bully spotted him out of the corner of his eye and blocked the blow. The big bully and his two friends put a beating on StPierre.
“I finished in the fetal position,” St-Pierre recalled. “But I never had problems with them again. Because in nature, the lion will always hunt the injured animal or the older animal. He will never take on the one who’s healthy … the bull who is strong. The same thing in life. The bully will never take on the strong guy.”
For anyone who watched St-Pierre win the UFC middleweight championship on Nov. 4 at New York’s Madison Square Garden, choking out Michael Bisping in the third round, it’s hard to believe he was bullied as a kid. But one of the most admirable things about St-Pierre is that he’s never forgotten “the geek” he used to be, or the people and places that helped him become the UFC superstar he is today, known simply as GSP.
That’s why St-Pierre was back at the Montreal Wrestling Club Wednesday night, where he has trained regularly for the last 16 years, and why he gave his new UFC championship belt to the club’s founder and coach, Victor Zilberman.
“Every time I win a fight, I keep the belt, and every time I give the belt to someone who helped me,” St-Pierre said. “I have a nucleus of people that are part of my foundation in training that have been there since the beginning. Everybody that I gave a belt, it’s because they were there since the beginning, when I was a nobody back in the day. They’re not there because I’m popular.
“Victor is a guy who helped me when I started wrestling here more than 15 years ago when I was a nobody and nobody cared about me. He’s always been very hard with me, but it’s for my best … to make the best come out of me. I’m very grateful for him … he’s part of my nucleus, the foundation.”
St-Pierre arrived at the Montreal Wrestling Club on Wednesday night with no fanfare, walking in almost unnoticed while wearing a blue-and-white windbreaker and carrying a large bottle of salt water he’s drinking as part of his recovery from the fight with Bisping.
He changed into a pair of tights, a T-shirt and wrestling boots, and then started to work out with the other wrestlers, blending in almost unnoticed.
Martine Dugrenier, a threetime wrestling world champion and two-time Olympian, first joined the Montreal Wrestling Club at about the same time as St-Pierre.
“He’s a gentleman here … he’s not the GSP that people know,” Dugrenier said. “Here, he’s just a regular wrestler to the other wrestlers. I think a lot of people can learn from him. A lot of people think he’s a superstar, but he’s just a regular person. He’s a very simple, humble person.
“It’s great to see his achievements,” Dugrenier added. “He stopped fighting (in UFC) for four years, but he never stopped coming here. He was always training.”
After Wednesday’s workout, St-Pierre took time to pose for photos with the other wrestlers and his new championship belt that now belongs to Zilberman. The smile never left his face.
“I’m Georges St-Pierre in my life, but when I’m a public person, I’m GSP,” St-Pierre said.
“GSP is a public person, but Georges St-Pierre is not. He’s private. He’s a normal guy.”
A normal guy who went from geek to UFC champ.