GEORGES ST-PIERRE
Bullying is now widely recognized as harmful in the workplace, in relationships, and perhaps above all for young people growing up. It may come as a surprise to some that world champion fighters were subjected to cruel bullying in their youth, and that it sometimes served as the inspiration to begin martial arts.
Former UFC welterweight Georges St-Pierre is considered by many to be the greatest champion in MMA history. He is unquestionably the greatest welterweight in UFC history.
He won the title in 2007, and then defended it ten times in a row. When he took a break from the sport late in 2013 for personal reasons, the division turned into a blender, with Johny Hendricks beating Robbie Lawler for the title, and then losing it to him. Lawler defended his belt successfully twice, and then lost to Tyron Woodley. And who does Woodley want to fight?
GSP.
But a long time ago, GSP was a little kid getting picked on.
“In fighting, the one that inspired me was Royce Gracie,” said St-Pierre, as transcribed by the awesome BJJEE. “He was the reason why I started Mixed Martial Arts.
“Growing up at school, I got bullied a lot. I was always a smaller and younger than the other guys that used to pick on me, and seeing a guy like Royce who weighed 170 pounds, take on the giants, and very intimidating people, because they back in the day, they didn’t have any weight class, it made me feel like it was me fighting the bullies at school.
“I see Royce as an inspiration to me, and that’s why I like Royce so much. What he did for this sport would never be done ever again he’s the greatest of all time, and everybody should respect that.”
GABI GARCIA
BJJ black belt Gabi Garcia won the world championships nine times, and is now 2-0 in MMA. She is physically intimidating, a real life version of Game of Thrones’ Brienne of Tarth, who doesn’t need a damn sword.
Here she is with little friend, Wanderlei ‘The Axe Murderer’ Silva, arguably the most intimidating fighter of all time. Who looks more initimidating?
Here Gabi is with little fisted, little friend Mirko ‘Crocop’ Flipovic.
However, Garcia appeared recently on the Grappling Central Podcast, and discussed being bullied when she was a girl.
I’m bigger than other girls, more tall,” said Gabi, as transcribed by BJJEE. “For me is not a problem because I have a lot of love in my heart. For me it’s not a problem I love my body.
“I don’t understand why do kids joke with that … but jiu-jitsu changed my life. It’s a problem for a lot of people because they don’t love themselves. My family is big and strong, and I like it, but it’s normal, the bullying in the school. But before jiu-jitsu it wasn’t good because I punched the kids [laughs].
Garcia also put in the work, and underwent a remarkable physical transformation.
FABRICIO WERDUM
Fabrício Werdum is the former UFC Heavyweight Champion, two-time Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu world champion, a two-time ADCC Submission Wrestling world champion, World Heavyweight Champion and European jiu-jitsu champion, with black belts in BJJ, Judo, and Muay Thai. He holds victories over Fedor Emelianenko, Cain Velasquez, Alistair Overeem, Minotauro Nogueira, and Mark Hunt.
However, he didn’t start martial arts until he was 21, after being bullied on the beach by his girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend, who knew BJJ.
He was 21 years old, living in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and went to the beach with his girlfriend Larissa. Little did he know that waiting at the beach for him was her ex-boyfriend Marquinhos (Little Marcos) who knew Jiu-Jitsu.
I guess he wanted to embarrass me in front of her and her entire family, Werdum recalled to Guilherme Cruz for MMAFighting.com. So he challenged me to fight him in a jiu-jitsu match right there at the beach.
’I like women, not jiu-jitsu’ explained Werdum. She told me to do it, that it would be fun, but I declined. I told her I had no idea what jiu-jitsu was, but she eventually convinced me to do it.
Werdum got triangled in under a minute.
Werdum started BJJ the next day, at Marcio Corletta’s Winner-Behring academy. A year later he won the Mundials as a blue belt. But he he never got another shot at Marcos.
I met him later and invited him to train with me, but he never accepted the challenge, said Werdum. He always had an excuse. Elbow, shoulder, he was always injured. He heard that I won the world championship in the blue belt and never accepted to train with me.
He recently contacted me, inviting me to teach a seminar in his gym. Yeah, right…
If I never had accepted my girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend’s challenge, I would never start training jiu-jitsu. And thank God I failed that test, or I wouldn’t be where I am today.
