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It takes indescribable talent, skill, and determination to become an elite fighter in the modern MMA game. Most who accomplish that feat will never win a title. For all those immeasurably talented fighters who came up in the UFC’s Welterweight division between 2007 and 2013, the title was off limits regardless of talent, skill, and determination. The title already had its place, and it wasn’t leaving. For the better part of the UFC’s modern era, a shot at the Welterweight title meant an opportunity to contribute to the legacy of Georges St-Pierre.

St-Pierre spent seven years dominating what was, at the time, the strongest division in Mixed Martial Arts. World class, deserving contenders fell one after another, typically in dominant fashion. After losing the title in a shocking upset to Matt Serra in his first defence, St-Pierre quickly recaptured the title and avenged the loss to Serra, before winning 10 straight title fights in his second reign. St-Pierre’s dominance spanned generations - from legends of the division’s past such as Matt Hughes and BJ Penn, to more contemporary, modern challenges in Thiago Alves and Carlos Condit.

While he was never the dynamic finishing threat that many wished of him, his fighting style belying his “Rush” moniker, the way he dominated opponents left no room for ambiguity. Explosive finishes draw the eye like nothing else, but there’s something about complete control - the systematic dismantling of an opponent’s game throughout every phase, the obliteration of every advantage he holds until he’s left too hesitant to exploit them, until strength is turned into weakness - that demonstrates true mastery. We can speculate about what may have happened if Anderson Silva hadn’t landed that front kick, or if Yoel Romero hadn’t leaped at just the right time, but there was no speculation under St-Pierre’s typical mode of victory. If he hadn’t landed that jab on Josh Koscheck’s eye, there were hundreds following right behind it. If he hadn’t hit that perfect timing on a shot against Thiago Alves, he’d simply find one a moment later.

Despite a never-ending list of accolades, none of them fully capture what made St-Pierre so special. He was a champion, but there’s no shortage of champions in a promotion with so many divisions. He won titles in multiple divisions, but double-champs are in vogue right now. He dominated a strong division for nearly a decade, but even his dominance is not entirely unique. Perhaps the most distinguishing aspect of St-Pierre’s legacy - the quality that sets him apart from everyone else in the sport - is his role as a progenitor.

No fighter I can think of has left his mark on the sport’s metagame so thoroughly as St-Pierre. In an era where the sport’s elite tended to possess either a single, primary skill with ancillary skills to ensure its effectiveness, or else a “jack of all trades, master of none” skillset, St-Pierre dominated in every phase. His success wasn’t simply due to being a better striker and grappler than his opponents, but was instead found in the cohesiveness of his game.

St-Pierre was the first fighter to truly systematize the game at an elite level. The essence of what I’m terming a “systematic” fighter is one whose game is better than the sum of its parts. St-Pierre was more than capable in any one phase, but it was the cohesion between his skills that made him near unbeatable at his best. He would out-strike opponents with his grappling and out-grapple them with striking. The structure of his fights tended to resemble a snowball careening down a hill; opponents would find their attempts to strike interrupted by takedowns, their attempts to grapple interrupted by footwork and jabs, and their attempts to react to St-Pierre’s offense stymied by the interplay between his striking and grappling. Every jab St-Pierre landed made it that much easier to find entries to his takedowns, while every takedown further opened up his offense on the feet.

Strength in Synergy

Each element of St-Pierre’s skillset functions as a perfectly-shaped puzzle piece. Every weapon he possesses is designed not to function on its own strength, but to bolster and be bolstered by his other tools. A focus on cohesiveness allowed St-Pierre to pare back the breadth of his game, investing most of his time in developing a few key weapons that play into each other, rather than attempting and failing to master everything.

The jab of St-Pierre is as legendary as it was effective. With versatility that had never been seen before in MMA, he would mix up long, lunging jabs with quick, short jabs and masterful feints. Foot feints and hand feints left opponents swinging at air until their senses were eventually dulled to the jab altogether, at which point they turned into sitting ducks being picked apart. Level changes added another layer of complexity onto his jab, as frequent body jabs served to condition opponents and leave them open for St-Pierre to feint the level change, or initiate it briefly before coming back up to the head.