What made GSP such a huge draw?

[chinarice]

GSP tapped to strikes. GSP cried for years about wanting stricter drug testing then left the very same year USADA came in. Left the sport after his first real fight in years vs Hendricks. Left the sport in his prime, looking like he was about to give birth from all the HGH he was injecting. Greased himself vs BJ Penn. Denied the fans the greatest fight of all time by refusing to move up to fight Anderson, a fight everyone wanted, yet couldn’t do it quick enough when Bisping is there for the taking.

I can tell by the attitude that you choose to adopt here - being antagonistic in the safety of anonymity, that you’re just not my kind of guy and our philosophies don’t line up, hence why you’re so upset about me calling out one of your hero’s anyway. You’re an emotional guy and that’s fine, maybe save that side of you for your girlfriend though.

If you're gonna act pretentious and act like a know it all, don't be flat out wrong about things....

GSP retired in 2013... usada was not implemented until July 2015.....

Swing and a miss.

 

[acannxr]

GSP tapped to strikes.

True.

GSP cried for years about wanting stricter drug testing then left the very same year USADA came in.

False.

11/16/13: GSP left the sport of MMA.
06/03/15: UFC announced the introduction of USADA.

USADA wasn't added until 18 months and 19 days after GSP left.

Left the sport after his first real fight in years vs Hendricks.

Subjective opinion.

GSP was talking about retiring leading up to the Condit fight, got dropped in that fight, and still fought two more times.

Left the sport in his prime

GSP wasn't the same after his knee injury in 2011.

looking like he was about to give birth from all the HGH he was injecting.

Unsubstantiated accusations of PEDs towards a fighter is against the Sherdog forum rules.

Greased himself vs BJ Penn.

Technically his cornerman did; here's someone who literally greased themselves multiple times though:

Denied the fans the greatest fight of all time by refusing to move up to fight Anderson

GSP was only ever officially offered that fight once and it was after he'd retired; Nurmagomedov refused to move up to Welterweight; Silva refused to move up against Jones; Jones refused to move up to Heavyweight.

yet couldn’t do it quick enough when Bisping is there for the taking.

I think he cherry picked that fight and I didn't buy into his colitis excuse.

You’re an emotional guy and that’s fine, maybe save that side of you for your girlfriend though.

Don't accuse someone of being "emotional" then resort to ad hominem attacks.

 

[D'z]

The flat out truth seems to be that the "hardcores" find humbleness boring as well.

I think "hadrcores" are split down the middle, half being martial arts purists, the other half being "just bleed" folk.

Oddly, I find myself swinging back and forth as I'm a fan of guys like GSP, Randy, Bobby Knucks, and Anthony Smith for their poise, graciousness, and humbleness in victory or defeat. While conversely I'm a fan of seemingly opposing mindsets in guys like Nate, Nick, Mas, and even Tank for their street fighter mentality.

I suppose it's simply because I can relate with both mindsets. An exercise in duality I guess...

 

[ThunderStruck]

If you think that, then did his contemporary AS fight great comp 2 or is it just bias as fuck

Silva fought OK comp and no im not biased. GSP fought guys at the peak of their career on huge win streak. AS fought guys on 2 or 3 fights win streak. GSP fought a bunch of guys that were ranked top 10 p4p at the time. GSP has far more top 5 and top 10 wins than Silva, in a division with much more fighters demographically. MW was thin as hell back then. There were like 5 guys like Sonnen at WW during Silva's reign (except with better BJJ). Fitch Shield Pierce Kos Story. All those guys are easily on Sonnen's level. All guys that would have been bad matchup for the Spider. Luckily he fought in a division with one good wrestler with no sub defense and one old wrestler with shot knees that relied on his chin and right hand.

 

[ThunderStruck]

Dan Henderson a fought the best imo....Jones fought better competition.....

Hendo has a case but wasn't nearly as consistent at GSP. He would win 2-3 then lose one and rinse and repeat. Jones though i totally disagree. He fought the old guard early on and then some guys his size where he started to get decision just like GSP. GSP has more top 5, top 10 and p4p wins than Jones.

 

[AnotherOldGuy]

The answer was Canada, when GSP fought he brought Canada with him. Dana would talk about the Canadians coming out for him in droves. He was Canada’s only MMA star and that really was his drawing point. If GSP was not Canadian, he would not have drawn as he did. Like Conor, who brought all of Ireland, he brought his country with him to the box office.

Although I have jones above GSP in the goat position, GSP was a phenomenal fighter. He was a great champion but i never thought he was as good as the other reigning champions.

Dana also talked about MMA being bigger than soccer. GSP got about a minute of network air time when he won a title fight. Sid Crosby was out for a year with a concussion and got more than that every day as part of an update on how his head was. MMA, including GSP, is very niche in Canada. Even curling is bigger than MMA -- the championships get 3-4 million Canadian viewers, imagine if GSP got that many for his PPV's? But he never got anywhere close to that despite the $50 dollars a PPV cost being petty cash in Canada (its the cost of dinner and a movie), because most Canadians simply don't care about MMA. And I say that as an MMA fans who wishes MMA was at least as popular as curling (seriously, its embarrassing to have curling far more popular here than MMA -- and makes no sense, how can we on the one hand love a sport like hockey and on the other hand have curling 10x as popular as MMA?)

Believing Dana when he talks about the popularity of MMA is not a good idea, and GSP was no more popular in Canada than MMA was bigger than soccer. Dana's a promoter, so of course he's going to lie about things like that. Shouldn't believe him though.

 

[AnotherOldGuy]

he was also lucky that he got a whole country (Canada) behind him, so that helped as well..

You mean the 5% of the country that knows or cares anything about MMA. Curling gets 3-4 million viewers in Canada. Its doubtful GSP got even a 10th that from Canadians (ie 300K-400K PPV's).

Its odd that people know Dana was BS'ing when he said MMA is bigger than soccer, but think he was telling the truth about how big GSP is in Canada.

 

[AnotherOldGuy]

He is a National figure in Canada.

I doubt even 10% of the population has heard of them, especially among those over the age of 40. Sid Crosby is a national figure. Wayne Gretzky is a national figure. Same for some other NHL stars. Everyone and their grandmother recognize them. GSP is a niche figure that a few young people recognize.

 

[ryun253]

They were impressed with his performances.

 

[MDSL]

Cos he is a Great Sales Person

 

[avenue94]

I want to emphasize that I am not saying the guy wasn't talented. I am saying that he wasn't a complete fighter like his opponents on the GOAT argument.

I know. I personally just think finishing ability is irrelevant in GOAT discussions and it should be based on resume (I get the argument that style matters). I more see finishing ability as its own reward, if you're finishing guys, you're clearing winning fights.

Name all of the fighters that have tapped to strikes.

Shogun, but also I don't see why tapping to strike is less acceptable than tapping to a submission. Brain damage is far worse than a mangled limb logically.

He retired before doing a rematch with Hendricks where it was debatable on who won their first split decision fight.

He already strongly hinted that he would step away after that fight, it wasn't a surprise to fans.

GSP had three finishes over BJ Penn, Serra, and Hughes in his prime. Hughes was finished multiple times by other fighters in this weight class. BJ Penn was a natural LW that lasted to the 4th round against GSP. The other guy was the same one that made him tap to strikes.

While I agree GSP was risk averse, I think people vastly overestimate how finishable GSP's title challengers were.
-Koscheck had only been finished by McFedries and Paulo Thiago.
-Fitch was undefeated
-Alves was subbed twice early on and fluke KOd by Fitch
-Hardy, tough as shit, took Condit of all people to knock him out
-Shields, Condit, Diaz, need we say more on how hard those guys are to put away?

Aside from Hardy, I can't really think of any of those fighters that GSP or even the most dangerous WWs would put away.

 

[SpedDaddyV]

White, handsome, Greek statue body, insane winning streak, French Canadian hero, a style that no one could stop

During GSP’s run before the Condit and Big Rigg fights, at no point did I ever think he had any chance of losing and if I was at the bar during his fights I barely paid attention

 

[Eric Silva 2.0]

I doubt even 10% of the population has heard of them, especially among those over the age of 40. Sid Crosby is a national figure. Wayne Gretzky is a national figure. Same for some other NHL stars. Everyone and their grandmother recognize them. GSP is a niche figure that a few young people recognize.

The guys you mentioned, especially Gretsky are national figures of their national sport. That's an entirely different level. GSP wouldn't be like a Gretsky or a Jordan, more like a Lindsey Vonn or maybe even Pete Sampras.

 

[ineverpost]

By today's standards he is not a huge draw, but he did it like every other big draw. He got non hardcore fans to watch the PPVs. He got a huge push from non MMA media, and a lot of that was cause he has a commercial look. Good looking white dude with the ideal body type, and he doesn't say or do anything controversial. That makes him safe for sponsors. He was getting into men's health magazine, ESPN, etc before other mma fighters were.

Edit: and yes the most important fact is he was just dominant.

 

[clutchCAT420]

Him

Other dominant champions like Jon Jones, Demetrious Johnson and José Aldo were just as impressive as GSP. He never talked trash and didn't have an overly exciting fighting style in his championship reigns. The excitement came from him figuring out puzzles but that's another topic.

Yet Georges st pierre pulled bigger numbers and checks than the rest of his dominant peers, without having to sell fights with trash talk or spectacular finishes. Why is that?

Him banging yo mama

 

[neandertal]

Timing, Canada, Visuals. I have no idea really though.

 

[Poser Caust]

being the goat of goats duh

 

[Shaddows]

You mean the 5% of the country that knows or cares anything about MMA. Curling gets 3-4 million viewers in Canada. Its doubtful GSP got even a 10th that from Canadians (ie 300K-400K PPV's).

Its odd that people know Dana was BS'ing when he said MMA is bigger than soccer, but think he was telling the truth about how big GSP is in Canada.

Yes, I meant all that knew MMA and watched it, was a fan of GSP, and that helped a lot.

 

[bubbleboyjones]

didn't have an overly exciting fighting style in his championship reigns.

I think a lot of people here didn't actually watch his rise(i've seen 20+ of these threads pop up over the years)......he became famous before he adopted a more grappling centric strategy.

People keep forgetting he was a karate guy in MMA when he got famous and he was exciting as shit. Once you obtain fame you don't lose it when you keep winning(meaning he kept all that buzz after he switched camps and kept winning).

 

[tech99]

He was a true professional, excellent athlete, very skillful in all aspects of mma, always showed up in great shape and was respectful. A true martial artist.