St-Pierre didn’t miss a beat, and Canadians paid attention
NEW YORK — In the lead-up to Saturday night’s UFC 217, there was an idea circulating in some circles that Georges St-Pierre’s return to the octagon was somehow not resonating with Canadian sports fans.
If you were anywhere near Madison Square Garden this week, you knew that was wrong. Sure, it was anecdotal, but the Blue Jays hats and Canadiens jerseys and Maple Leaf flags were everywhere.
We might not be as loud as the travelling Irish fans who accompany Conor McGreogr to every one of his fights, but we’re still there.
And on Saturday, our guy was back and our country was ready for it.
All of that might have been forgotten had St-Pierre stepped into the ring against Michael Bisping and embarrassed himself. After four years away from competition and fighting a bigger opponent, that was always a possibility. It didn’t happen, though. Instead, St-Pierre looked better than ever. His jabs were crisp, his takedowns still unworldly and he showed that he’s still got plenty of power in those 36-year-old hands when he flattened Bisping with a left hook and then claimed the UFC title with a rear-naked choke.
In doing so, St-Pierre jumped the line in the Greatest of All-Time conversation and put Canada back on the map as one of the centres of MMA greatness.
And let’s be clear, this fight sold.
According to UFC president Dana White, UFC 217 surpassed this summer’s McGregor-Floyd Mayweather boxing match to become the top-selling pay-perview in Canadian history.
“We’re pretty sure tonight killed,” White said at Saturday’s post-fight press conference. “MayweatherMcGregor has the record there in Canada and we were No. 2 and No. 3, and I’m pretty sure this beat Mayweather-McGregor.”
While the UFC put in some serious work promoting the St-PierreBisping fight, the promotional efforts paled in comparison to the build-up to this summer’s boxing bonanza.
And while the entire card on Saturday night delivered with stellar action, the big pay-perview number in Canada can only truly be attributed to St-Pierre’s starpower.
That’s great news for Canadian MMA.
While a handful of talented young fighters have emerged in the wake of St-Pierre’s dominant 10-year run, nobody had truly managed to capture the hearts and minds of Canadian sports fans the way he did.
After a while, it was hard to deny that Canada had fallen from its perch as the ‘Mecca of MMA,’ as Dana White had once described the Great White North in 2010.
There were some exciting moments since St-Pierre’s 2013 ‘retirement,’ to be sure.
Rory MacDonald, from Kelowna, fought Robbie Lawler in one of the greatest matches in UFC history at UFC 189 in 2015. Unfortunately, MacDonald lost.
Last year, Toronto proved that it might still be the best fight town in the world when the crowd at the Air Canada Centre was absolutely electric during UFC 206, despite an on-paper underwhelming crowd.
There hadn’t been anything like Saturday night for a long time, though.
St-Pierre has a unique charisma. He tries to be a role model and hold himself to the traditional values of martial arts. He’s polite, he doesn’t swear much and is respectful of his opponents.
It’s all very Canadian, and in a sport where McGregor made trashtalking seem like the shortcut to title shots and massive paydays, St-Pierre’s inherent decentness felt like a revelation this week.
From ringside on Saturday night, it was abundantly clear that even after four years away from the UFC, something about St-Pierre still resonates with fight fans.
It was going to take something — and someone — truly special for the UFC to come back to Madison Square Garden for a second time and somehow replicate the transcendent feeling it produced last year, when McGregor beat Eddie Alvarez for the lightweight title.
As it turns out, St-Pierre was the man for the job.
With Ronda Rousey gone, Jon Jones likely done and McGregor’s future up-in-the-air, St-Pierre strolled into the octagon, lay a beating on Bisping and took back his rightful place on the UFC throne.
For White and the UFC, there’s only one thing left to be done.
Bring St-Pierre back to Canada and let him fight at home.
“Yeah, it would obviously make sense to got back to Montreal,” White said.