GSP on whether it is harder to win the belt, or keep it
GSP: “Everybody can shine one night. Everybody can have a good night.”
Welterweight G.O.A.T. Georges St-Pierre won the title on November 18, 2006, and lost it just 140 days later to Matt Serra. GSP later said the lifestyle he was leading was not conducive to maintaining a title. He learned, and won the interim title on Dec 29, 2007, and unified them on April 19, 2008, in a rematch with Serra.
St-Pierre then held the title for an extraordinary 2,064 days (2,204 days including the Interim) before giving it up citing the pressures of staying on top. That puts GSP second only the UFC G.O.A.T. Anderson Silva, who had 2457 days. And it puts GSP in a great position to talk about what is harder, winning the title, or keeping it?
“It’s very hard to be champion in the UFC,” said GSP. “But it’s harder to stay champion. Everybody can shine one night. Everybody can have a good night. But to be consistent, that’s the hard part. That’s why we see a lot of title changing sometimes, because it is very hard to be consisent. You need a lot of discipline and a regime of life that demands a lot of sacrifice.”
After GSP left the division, the belt changed hands with frequency. GSP defended the belt successfully nine times. Carlos Condit never successfully defended his Interim title. Johny Hendricks never successfully defended his title. Robbie Lawler defended twice. And now Tyron Woodley has successfully defended twice, although one was a draw.
GSP fights UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping, date TBA. If he wins, the next stop is rumored to be a fight with lightweight champion Conor McGregor. A win there would make GSP unquestionably the greatest fighter in MMA history.
Image courtesy of Tracy Lee‘s combatlifestyle.com.