Being the greatest of all time comes with a heavy burden—you simply can’t afford to lose. But sometimes, no matter how prepared you are, things just don’t go your way. Georges St-Pierre learned this the hard way when he suffered a shocking upset loss to Matt Serra in 2007.
For GSP, the defeat wasn’t just a career setback—it haunted him. Serra was never supposed to win. He was a massive underdog against the GOAT. Yet, somehow, the welterweight challenger found a way to secure a first-round TKO against GSP. This loss haunted the Canadian champion.
He admitted that just hearing Serra’s name triggered something in his mind, making him relive the loss over and over again. It got so bad that he even turned to a sports psychologist, who made him face his fears head-on. But deep down, all he wanted was to get back in the octagon and smash Serra to smithereens.
So how did he deal with it? And how did he use that loss to fuel one of the greatest comebacks in UFC history?
In order to get over his loss and get back to winning ways, ‘GSP’ turned to a sports psychologist who had a unique exercise for him. While speaking to Matt Serra himself, St-Pierre revealed how he got over the loss psychologically.
“You were haunting my mind. I wanted to get back and erase that mistake.”, he admitted.
Explaining the process of moving on in further detail, GSP said, “He made me carry a brick in my training bag with your name on it. I carry that in my bag weeks and weeks and week and it was getting heavy.”
It got to a point where he called the psychologist and said, “Can I get rid of this? This is getting ridiculous” to which he was met with a firm no.
After a few more weeks of lugging it around, his psychologist finally allowed him to throw the brick in the river. This act, St-Pierre says freed him psychologically.
“It’s an action that I did that that a psychological manifestation on me because I felt relief and I was able to only focus on Josh Koscheck.”, GSP said with a sense of relief in his tone.
GSP was far ahead of his peers during his time as an active fighter. From training methods to getting help from sports psychologists, these practices were unheard of back in the early days of the UFC. This is why he is widely considered the GOAT by many who were raised in the sport.
Staying ahead of the curve is also how he retired, only to come back and fight for a title in an entirely different weight class and still win!
GSP’s magnificent swan song
When GSP called it a day in 2013, he had already left a legacy to proudly look back on. Nobody was ever coming close. Besides, the relentless pressure of fights and camps along with the burden of personal issues had taken a toll on him by that point.
However, the competitive fire still burned within. So after a 4-year layoff, in 2017, GSP made a triumphant return, moving up a weight class to challenge Michael Bisping for the Middleweight title at UFC 217.
A four-year gap while fighting for the title is essentially a death sentence. The sport doesn’t wait for anyone. Fighters get better with each generation with new techniques, and newer training methods getting invented every day.
We have seen fighters, like Conor McGregor come back to the octagon after a prolonged break and just find themselves in alien territory.
But not GSP, because as mentioned before, he was already ahead of the curve. And for some reason, the rest of the roster was only beginning to catch up.
On this date in 2017, Georges St-Pierre returned from a four-year hiatus to fight then-middleweight champ Michael Bisping at UFC 217.
In what would be the final fight of his career, the long-time welterweight champ submitted Bisping to capture gold in a second weight class pic.twitter.com/5v3VPCo7lC
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) November 4, 2020
GSP fought Bisping at Madison Square Garden in a thrilling contest. GSP showcased his versatility, standing toe-to-toe with Bisping and complementing them with his grappling skills.
Bisping endured for a couple of rounds but got caught in a rear-naked choke, and tapped out, thus crowning GSP with the Middleweight championship.
This victory made him the fourth fighter in UFC history to hold titles in two different weight classes.
Despite this monumental achievement, GSP’s return was short-lived. Citing health concerns, he vacated the title just 34 days later and officially announced his retirement in 2019.
