GSP still MMA’s true good guy
Icon’s return a welcome turn for sport, writes Danny Austin.
NEW YORK If Georges StPierre initially seemed unsuited to promote a UFC fight in 2017, he’s certainly grown into the role.
In the main event of Saturday night’s UFC 217 card in New York, St-Pierre will have the chance to prove the MMA world hasn’t left him behind in the four years since he last stepped into the Octagon when he fights Michael Bisping for the middleweight title.
All week, though, he’s been showing that despite an MMA landscape forever altered by Conor McGregor’s brash brand of loud trash talk, a polite French-Canadian with a big smile can still get fans to pay attention.
He did swear once, though, and UFC lightheavyweight champion Daniel Cormier said that was no accident.
“He’s trying a little bit more, but he cussed and it was like ‘what?’” Cormier said Friday. “Georges is like the consummate martial artist. He wants to carry himself with dignity and honour and just fight and then leave, but it’s a different time than when he walked away four years ago.”
Cormier is certainly right MMA has changed since St-Pierre edged out Johny Hendricks in his last fight back in 2013.
Largely, that’s because of McGregor.
Long before the Irishman was earning ninefigure paydays and boxing Floyd Mayweather, he was taking shots at every single one of his rivals in the featherweight division.
The UFC rewarded him by fast-forwarding his career and giving him any opponent he wanted, turning him into the only man who could realistically say he was a bigger star than St-Pierre in his prime.
The men couldn’t be more different, and while many on the UFC roster have sought to emulate McGregor, it was refreshing to watch St-Pierre stick to his principles and rely on the same good-natured charisma that saw him become one of the company’s most beloved athletes during the decade in which he rose to prominence.
That’s what makes St-Pierre so special as a celebrity-athlete.
There might not be another fighter in the UFC who parents can point to when they’re looking for a good role model for their kids. Whatever happens Saturday, there’s a lot of value in that.
In the McGregor-era of mixed martial arts, having a star who genuinely tries to be the good guy feels like it’s worth cherishing.