GSP is boring.. how was he ever PPV king?

[12ga.]

He was great. PPL like watching greatness. He made NCAA wrestling champs look like they never wrestled. He nullified everyone really until the end. I'm not even a GSP fan but still can appreciate how dominate he was. About the biggest knock is he didnt try risky subs often enough and was happy staying in guard and 50-45 guys.

 

[QcChopper]

your username is "mcgregor 49-1"................................ohh boy

Yep, won't believe GSP is a PPV draw but believes an amateur boxer has a chance against an all-time great boxer.

 

[Patman]

He had a country backing him I guess.

There are only 37 million Canadians. That's like someone fighting from the state of California.

 

[Lawrence]

Watching some of GSP's old fights.. just wondering why he was ever popular? The majority of his fights go to decisions (all of his last 7 fights went to decision), he got beaten by a midget Matt Serra and he doesn't know how to trash talk. Why did people ever like the guy? Was it just because he was Canadian?

I am not impressed with your post TS

 

[Spoken]

join date checks out


Been saying this since the fight was announced. The GSP hype is lost on Sherdog.

It would be interesting to know the actual percentage of Sherdoggers that were into mma when GSP first came up. It's probably about 50% that were even around when he retired. But how many were around for Parisyan, Hieron and Hughes 1 in 2004?

GSP brings an aura to the fight that you can't even really explain, even if you were there and remember it.

amen

 

[AnotherOldGuy]

I think there's at least 700,000 people in Canada, but aside from that I have no idea. I respect him as a talented martial artist, but theres just not much exciting to me about a jab, leg kick, superman punch, takedown and hold, 5 times in a row over 25 minutes. definitely the most non finishing champ of all time

35 million Canadians, about the same population as California. Unfortunately MMA is an extremely niche sport up here, not 10% of Canadians have ever heard of GSP.

The news media spent more time on Sid Crosby's concussion (he didn't play for most of a year because of it) every day (pointless newcasts saying nothing had changed) than they spent on GSP even on days he fought. Hockey is really the only sport that counts here. Even women's curling gets (according to official network figures) 3-4 million viewers, which is 3-4 times as many viewers as GSP ever got.

It'd be nice if Canada supported MMA and GSP the way people on Sherdog think, but the reality is most people still have no idea about it. The only exception is young guys (ie guys under 25), and they tend not to have free money to pay for PPV's - and they tend to watch hockey by a long shot too. Of course, some say its because hockey has better fights.

Thinking GSP has a whole country behind him is like thinking say Anderson Silva had a whole country behind him. In Brazil its all about soccer (or football), in Canada its about hockey.

Why some people watch GSP is pretty simple, its the same reason some people watch Mayweather - people like to watch winners. Every sports team knows this. You don't have to be exciting as long as you're winning. If you start to lose you better be exciting if you want to sell tickets.

 

[Squall10]

Watching some of GSP's old fights.. just wondering why he was ever popular? The majority of his fights go to decisions (all of his last 7 fights went to decision), he got beaten by a midget Matt Serra and he doesn't know how to trash talk. Why did people ever like the guy? Was it just because he was Canadian?

Good looks, Jean Claude Van Damme French Canadian fetishes.

 

[tru3f4n]

Watching some of GSP's old fights.. just wondering why he was ever popular? The majority of his fights go to decisions (all of his last 7 fights went to decision), he got beaten by a midget Matt Serra and he doesn't know how to trash talk. Why did people ever like the guy? Was it just because he was Canadian?

because he was a nice guy

 

[Aberlour]

I feel like people tuned in more in the hope of seeing him get beat rather than tuning in because he was entertaining to watch.

 

[tru3f4n]

join date checks out


Been saying this since the fight was announced. The GSP hype is lost on Sherdog.

It would be interesting to know the actual percentage of Sherdoggers that were into mma when GSP first came up. It's probably about 50% that were even around when he retired. But how many were around for Parisyan, Hieron and Hughes 1 in 2004?

GSP brings an aura to the fight that you can't even really explain, even if you were there and remember it.

I remember thinking during the Karo fight he had a shit ton of bacne he must be on the roids

 

[AnotherOldGuy]

I remember thinking during the Karo fight he had a shit ton of bacne he must be on the roids

Along with 90% of high school boys and quite a few high school girls.

He might well be on the roids, but if bacne was proof then the IOC would use it as evidence, instead of insisting on much more inconvenient and expensive blood tests.

What is it with people and visual determination of steroid use? Don't they ever wonder why, if visual signs meant anything, they aren't being used by the sporting organizations who could save tens of millions every year by replacing blood tests with visual tests?

 

[Quebec Nick]

35 million Canadians, about the same population as California. Unfortunately MMA is an extremely niche sport up here, not 10% of Canadians have ever heard of GSP.

The news media spent more time on Sid Crosby's concussion (he didn't play for most of a year because of it) every day (pointless newcasts saying nothing had changed) than they spent on GSP even on days he fought. Hockey is really the only sport that counts here. Even women's curling gets (according to official network figures) 3-4 million viewers, which is 3-4 times as many viewers as GSP ever got.

It'd be nice if Canada supported MMA and GSP the way people on Sherdog think, but the reality is most people still have no idea about it. The only exception is young guys (ie guys under 25), and they tend not to have free money to pay for PPV's - and they tend to watch hockey by a long shot too. Of course, some say its because hockey has better fights.

Thinking GSP has a whole country behind him is like thinking say Anderson Silva had a whole country behind him. In Brazil its all about soccer (or football), in Canada its about hockey.

Why some people watch GSP is pretty simple, its the same reason some people watch Mayweather - people like to watch winners. Every sports team knows this. You don't have to be exciting as long as you're winning. If you start to lose you better be exciting if you want to sell tickets.

What's the percentage of americans who ever heard of Cody Garbrandt or Uriah Faber or TJ Dillishaw

It's a niche sport everywhere

In Quebec it's way more than 10% who knows about Georges, he's been on major TV shows a lot of times. Even during his layoff he had decent public stunts for various charitative events.

 

[En7ropii]

Because he was professional and an athlete, treated this as a professional sport as opposed to sports entertainment.

The "just bleed" crowd can be pretty intense but fighters working for their approval with cheap antics pretty much alienates big sponsors, serious sport fans (which generally invests so much more per capita into athletes), mainstream media attention and governing bodies (which is important if you're trying to be a legitimate sports organization and regulated in places where a lot of people are willing to pay to watch a fight).

Semantics of whether someone else may have brought more or less PPV buys is irrelevant, GSP brought something quite more valuable to the sport and organization then someone promoting his fights in the style of WWE can.

 

[chitoortiz]

Alot of kids in this thread.

 

[Babaganoosh]

I think most knew what they were seeing. He made really good fighters look like amateurs. He was so well rounded. I enjoyed watching him fight and I miss the old guard we don’t have any elite guys like we did back then.

 

[En7ropii]

I think most knew what they were seeing. He made really good fighters look like amateurs. He was so well rounded. I enjoyed watching him fight and I miss the old guard we don’t have any elite guys like we did back then.

Problem is, there is no incentive to round yourself perfectly. If you're "exciting", have a loud mouth and the looks to sell then a negative W-L-D record means squat, the UFC will book you higher then the guy on a win streak.

 

[zephid]

Watching some of GSP's old fights.. just wondering why he was ever popular? The majority of his fights go to decisions (all of his last 7 fights went to decision), he got beaten by a midget Matt Serra and he doesn't know how to trash talk. Why did people ever like the guy? Was it just because he was Canadian?

He was more exiting before he got KO'd by Serra. He also had a huge Canadian fan base.

 

[MusterX]

GSP brings an aura to the fight that you can't even really explain, even if you were there and remember it.

Check out a couple of his walk outs, F'ing gloriously awesome at times. Listen to the crowd roar when they see him.

UFC 83


UFC124 filmed from the crowd.


Make no mistake, when Georges St. Pierre walks out to fight Michael Bisping for the MW title, the roof is going to come off that place.

 

[90 50]

I also think maybe he started not now finishing people fast also to give the fans “more”

In Tyson’s heyday veiwing drooped after the spinks fight that was 30 secs long.

No one wanted to pay for a 30 sec fight.

Lots of reasons but the real reason he was such a draw to most is what’s been said here earlier.

If you were watching back then this dude came out of no where finishing everyone and making them look like nobodies.

Hughes was seen as invincible by a lot back then and people were wanting him to go up to MW to test himself since he was walking through all the other WW’s.

Out of no where here comes this young fighter that’s on a tear and gets a shot, he was OWNING Hughes before the armbar. He made Hughes not look invincible anymore to alot (now a lot of us know he really lost to Newton but that’s another discussion entirely. )

It was the mistique of it, could anyone besides Hughes beat him, and if given another shot could he actually beat Hughes the next time.

These were the discussions at the time.

It was a different era, people flocked to bars to watch UFC fights with George. Places were packed like no other.

Big groups of GIRLS went to the bars to watch their cutie fight (and this also helped bring people to the bars also!!)

I’ve been at bars recently with ufc’s On and not even realized they were on, you fucking NEW when George was fighting.

 

[Gambit MMA]

what was his rounds won streak? like 35?