Was GSP still in his peak wh in Hendrick's fight?

[aali14]

His prime ended after his knee surgery, he looked like shit since, taking lots of damage from Condit, Diaz and then Hendricks

 

[mkt]

also was 32, and again, had already 2 knee surgery.

Right, GSP had multiple ACL injuries and surgeries later in his career. Somehow every loss Shogun had after age 27 is excused but GSP's less-dominant late performances (which were still wins) are questioned around here.

 

[mkt]

GSP's Peak Was probably the penn rematch and a bit after

BJ rematch, Fitch, Kos rematch. He was really good then. Not as exciting and willing to go for a finish as his younger days, but his best nonetheless.

 

[mkt]

in all seriousness though, GSP was still in his physical prime but he was admittedly mentally exhausted from defending the belt for so long. By the time hendricks and him faced off, GSP was half out the door retired and his motivation to fight was fading.

No one is in their physical prime after blowing out their knee twice.

 

[L0ki]

He planned to "make an announcement" well before the Hendrix fight.

We all knew he was talking about retirement, so he already had a foot out the door.

 

[JudoThrowFiasco]

Mentally checked, physically probably should be considered in his prime; which in of itself can be a scale

 

[Substance Abuse]

Yeah, most guys with two surgeries from torn ACLs are in their prime, lol.

 

[DanDragon Machi]

Absolutely not. With the all-time great polls going around this past week I was re-watching all of his fights. And when he came back from that ACL injury, that second level athletic explosion was gone. He was fighting, mostly with his heart, his brain, and his technique. But he was getting hit a lot more and his ability to get that fight down easily whenever he wanted to was no longer there. He was slower. Significantly.

When was his last fight in prime?

 

[orca]

Hendricks had some advantages in that fight if you know what I mean.

lol gsps shoulders are almost as big as his head

ive seen natural competitions in bodybuilding
their body isnt even close to gsp lol

so your tryna tell me i just punch and kick and do cardio
il have a body like gsp

if you really do believe hes natural
then hes a freak of nature
freakier than brock lesnar
loool

 

[DagOban**]

What's sure is that Hendrick was way beyond his peak.

 

[herpd807]

Naw he was on the downturn. His peak in my opinion was when he had a string of 3-5 fights where he never lost a round and barely got touched.

 

[HHJ]

He was already saying he was worn the fuck out like 2 or 3 fights before that. He was looking at the end in sight back in the leadup to the Condit fight. So I would say no.

 

[HHJ]

When he didn't power double Condit in the 1st 5 seconds of the fight through the canvas, I knew he was not the same Georges anymore. He had to work a little too hard (comparatively) for the guy with the best TDs ever against a guy with some of the worst TDD ever

He was also pretty mentally checked out for awhile and had been talking about retiring several fights before Hendricks

Yeah, I think it was around the Condit fight.

 

[NoBiasJustMMA]

No, GSP's wrestling wasn't nearly as good post knee surgery. He was passed his prime but his decline was a slow one.

 

[NicholasJBasile]

I feel Hendricks was just a tough stylistic match up for GSP

 

[Barteh]

It's obvious to anybody that GSP was out of his prime by then, not sure why it's even being questioned?

The physical aspect is obvious and the mental aspect is quite out there as well.

 

[acannxr]

The reason GSP wasn't dominant like used be in all his fights it was because he was out of his prime or the reason was just his opponent who was better than Fitch, Shields, Kos, Alves, Diaz...?

Physically, GSP wasn't quite as explosive after his knee injury in 2011.

Mentally, GSP was talking about retirement leading up to the Condit fight one year prior, and by the time he fought Hendricks his "personal issues" (i.e. getting his current wife pregnant) were the tipping point.

That being said, Hendricks would've still been a very tough matchup even against a prime GSP.

 

[Bagatur]

he was gonna announce his retirement after that fight win or lose. you don retire when you're in your prime.

 

[mkt]

I feel Hendricks was just a tough stylistic match up for GSP

You can feel whatever you want, but GSP had multiple ACL injuries and surgeries before that. I agree Hendricks was a tough match-up, but we didn't see him vs. a true, circa 2008-9 GSP.

 

[BearVictim]

I always have considered his rematch with Penn and his defense against alves at 100 to be his peak and everything afterwards was a victory lap which eventually turned into phoning it in.