Georges St. Pierre peered through the blood that washed over his face and locked on a choke hold, a packed house at Madison Square Garden absolutely roaring for “G-S-P!”
St. Pierre tightened his grip until Michael Bisping had no more fight left.
Four years after he walked away from UFC for a mental breather, St. Pierre walked out of MSG a champion — a breathtaking reminder that the Canadian is still one of the best ever inside the octagon.
And he proved it in the main event in one of UFC’s all-time great cards.
St. Pierre ended UFC 217 by reasserting himself as a top star in the sport, turning his middleweight championship bout against Bisping into a mismatch Saturday night. The 36-year-old fought like he had only four months off, not four years.
“I don’t have words in my mouth right now,” GSP said, wiping blood from his face. He went to a hospital after the fight to get stitches on his nose.
St. Pierre’s 13th straight UFC victory made it 3 for 3 for the championship challengers in front of 18,201 fans in the promotion’s second card at the Garden in 12 months. T.J. Dillashaw won the bantamweight championship for the second time and Rose Namajunas won the strawweight title on the pay-per-view card.
“It’s time for a new era in this sport,” Namajunas said.
UFC, a promotion at a crossroads with its box office superstars Conor McGregor, Ronda Rousey and Jon Jones on the bench, got a breakthrough outing from Namajunas that stamped her as the face of the women’s division.
But UFC needed a blast from the past to ignite the fanbase as it moves toward 2018.
St. Pierre was one of the UFC’s marquee names and a legit pay-per-view draw during his long reign atop the 170-pound division, but the Canadian star walked away an MMA legend in November 2013. St. Pierre simply said he needed a break.
Against the trash-talking Bisping, St. Pierre had takedowns in each of the first two rounds. But Bisping busted open St. Pierre’s nose, smothering both fighters in blood as they wrestled on the mat before getting up looking like they’d just left the set of a horror film.
St. Pierre (26-2) was red faced when he slapped a rear naked choke at 4:32 of the third to snuff out Bisping and win a belt in his second weight class.
If St. Pierre represents UFC’s glory years, Namajunas could be the PPV poster child for the future.
Namajunas brought the MSG crowd to its feet with a stunning victory over undefeated Joanna Jedrzejczyk to win the 115-pound belt.
Namajunas (17-3) used a devastating left that dropped Jedrzejczyk (14-1) and had the crowd in a frenzy in anticipation of a beatdown. Namajunas pounced on Jedrzejczyk with a series of lefts that ended the fight in the first round and perhaps signaled the arrival of a new star. She wagged her tongue and stretched her arms wide as she soaked in the magnitude of her accomplishment. AP