Former UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre admits he wasn’t fully prepared to fight the evening he lost his title in 2007.
At UFC 69 in 2007, St-Pierre took on Matt Serra in the main event, entering as a massive favorite over his opponent. Everyone expected St-Pierre to take care of business with little difficulty, but Serra and his team had other plans. Combine that with St-Pierre’s over-confidence and the result was one of the most shocking upsets in the history of the sport.
“‘GSP! You’re up next! Are you ready?’” St-Pierre told Burt Watson in the latest “Legend 2 Legend” episode. “When you said, ‘Are you ready?’ It hit me. I was like, ‘Sh*t, maybe I’m not ready.’”
St-Pierre was coming in off a second-round finish of Matt Hughes at UFC 65 to win the title. Entering as a champion on a six-fight win streak to face an opponent who many wrote off, St-Pierre believed his own hype, and recognized it right before it was time to enter the cage.
“I felt that I didn’t do the same sacrifice that I did normally in my other fights,” St-Pierre said. “I didn’t feel like I was scared enough, because normally when I train, I train in the fear that my opponent trained harder than me, and I go through a lot of mental struggle to overcome that fear and adversity. I didn’t feel like when I fought Matt Serra I went through that.”
Virtually nothing went right for St-Pierre when the fight started. He got clipped with a right hand that landed behind the ear, which rocked him hard, causing him to struggle to keep his feet underneath him as Serra tried to finish the fight.
“I became enraged,” St-Pierre said about getting hurt with the punch. “Now I’m thinking, I’m gonna give it back to him right away. I lost my equilibrium, I’m stunned. Which is not a good idea in a fight when you get stunned. You get back up and re-compose.”
St-Pierre did not take the time he needed. He tried to return fire but he was still in a bad way, ultimately leading to him looking up at the lights a few moments later, creating a career-defining moment for his opponent.
“Matt Serra was a lot better than I thought he was, and he came that night,” St-Pierre said. “He beat me because he was a better fighter. He fought a much better fight than me. He was the best fighter that night.”
Although St-Pierre would finish Serra in their rematch a year later, the upset remains one of the biggest upsets in history, which put a lot of things into perspective for the future Hall of Famer.
You can watch the video above to hear GSP speak more about the Serra upset. The full episode of “Legend 2 Legend” can be seen below.
Georges St-Pierre reflects on over-confidence before Matt Serra upset: ‘Sh*t, maybe I’m not ready’
