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

[Ibm]

Yes he was, people need to understand that George like all other fighters are beatable. He was amazing but he took a lot of damage in his fights. I still do think he edged the Hendricks fight though.

 

[IIIIIIII]

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...?

to me it logically has to be both. he was older and had more fights, along with the sport evolving and fighters getting better/having more knowledge of gsp's style.

 

[IIIIIIII]

Yes he was, people need to understand that George like all other fighters are beatable. He was amazing but he took a lot of damage in his fights. I still do think he edged the Hendricks fight though.

now that is laughable. he did not take a lot of damage in his fighting career. the opposite is what he was known for. winning with as little damage as possible.

 

[Ibm]

now that is laughable. he did not take a lot of damage in his fighting career. the opposite is what he was known for. winning with as little damage as possible.

Are you sure? You can see how he looked in several of his fights. He was a delicate guy and his skin used to bruide easily but hes been hit and beaten in his fights no doubt. Anderson was the guy who took the least damage apart from getting his leg snapped and allowing sonnen to beat him down for 5 rounds. Geroge on the other hand, took poundings.

 

[IIIIIIII]

Are you sure? You can see how he looked in several of his fights. He was a delicate guy and his skin used to bruide easily but hes been hit and beaten in his fights no doubt. Anderson was the guy who took the least damage apart from getting his leg snapped and allowing sonnen to beat him down for 5 rounds. Geroge on the other hand, took poundings.

he has never even been knocked out in his career lol. many more guys have fought in the ufc with more damage sustained than gsp.

 

[Dbreiden83080]

When was his last fight in prime?

Kos 2 or Shields. And having just rewatched the Jake shields fight the only reason that was remotely competitive is GSP took a knuckle to the eyeball in round three. He was mopping the floor with Jake shields up to that point.

 

[blaseblase]

I don't think GSP was in his prime after he got the ACL tear in 2011.

 

[bjjwar]

He had just turned 30 and didn't have any crazy wars with his safe style of point fighting. So he was absolutely in his prime. He still had a good 4-5 years in him at the top.

 

[Mike]

He had just turned 30 and didn't have any crazy wars with his safe style of point fighting. So he was absolutely in his prime. He still had a good 4-5 years in him at the top.

Except as many others mentioned, he'd already torn his ACL. A career killing injury across all of sports. He tore his right in 2011, then later tore the right in 2014.

 

[kingghidrah]

He wasn't at his peak but he was in his prime

 

[Eric Silva 2.0]

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.

"but he was admittedly mentally exhausted."

He also was being visited by aliens. He had a lot going on.

 

[DFresh1]

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.

Can I say this? Shogun fans play this card A LOT because he's had "old man knees" since his mid-late 20s.

There's clips of GSP doing takedowns from like half way across the octagon and he just didn't do that anymore during the Shields, Diaz, Condit and Hendricks fights.

 

[mkt]

Can I say this? Shogun fans play this card A LOT because he's had "old man knees" since his mid-late 20s.

There's clips of GSP doing takedowns from like half way across the octagon and he just didn't do that anymore during the Shields, Diaz, Condit and Hendricks fights.

Yep. Against Diaz, he had some nice TDs and wrestling for the first 2 rounds then just stopped, which he never would've done earlier in his career. It must have been pain or fear of re-injuring his knee. Then he managed to stand and hold his own with prime Diaz for the last 3 rounds which is pretty impressive.

 

[filthynumber1]

prime

henricks tapped within the first 25 seconds of the fight

Definitely a mistake to let that go...also Lost top position directly after letting it go.
Should have committed more on it

 

[cburm]

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...?

No gsp was in his prime and hendricks was in his prime and I'm 100 percent sure he was juiced.

Either way when a champ is dominant for a long time and we'll known everyone will have footage and a solid game plan..

Hendricks had a good wrestling background good tdd and better boxing.

It was a bad matchup for gsp at the time.

Gotta give Hendricks credit same with a matt Serra who kod him and took his belt are those guys better at MMA no but they still managed to get wins

 

[Dbreiden83080]

He had just turned 30 and didn't have any crazy wars with his safe style of point fighting. So he was absolutely in his prime. He still had a good 4-5 years in him at the top.

He was 32. And that’s still young but that ACL injury just took a lot of his athletic explosion away. I mean, when he was struggling to take down Nick Diaz as a diehard GSP fan, I was forced to acknowledge the man was no longer in his prime.

 

[Dbreiden83080]

Yep. Against Diaz, he had some nice TDs and wrestling for the first 2 rounds then just stopped, which he never would've done earlier in his career. It must have been pain or fear of re-injuring his knee. Then he managed to stand and hold his own with prime Diaz for the last 3 rounds which is pretty impressive.

I literally just watched that fight yesterday and he didn’t stop. He didn’t have that next level explosion. He basically would try to grab a hold of people and muscle them to the ground or he would try to have a reactive takedown off of a punch or kick. Firas in the corner when GSP failed to get numerous takedowns told him that GSP needed to focus on reactive takedowns and not proactive takedowns. Who in the right mind would’ve told GSP that in the corner in his prime? He used to just explode through people, he couldn’t do it anymore.

 

[Natural Order]

Styles make fights. All kinds of intangibles at play.

GSP wasn't quite at his physical peak (due to surgeries) but still A class for sure. As others have noted, his mind was mostly checked out from wanting to keep going. Smart move all said and done. Established one of the greatest MMA legacies of all-time and got out with 95% of his health and a heck of a bank account.

 

[MeganFan]

No, he was not in his prime.

 

[Dbreiden83080]

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.

He did honestly I think he didn’t have much motivation left after the Nick Diaz fight. He wanted to prove he could come back and win back the championship, one more time, and he wanted to end his feud with Nick Diaz. After that, he probably felt like I’m done. I got nothing left to prove.