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#8 Georges St-Pierre vs. Johny Hendricks, UFC 167 – November 16th, 2013
There was a lot of controversy around longtime UFC Welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre going into his 9th title defense against Johny Hendricks at UFC 167, with rumors swirling about a possible retirement, but when the fight was said and done, things only got worse for ‘Rush’. He held onto his title with a split decision win that most fans thought should’ve gone the other way.
Hendricks started off badly, almost being caught in an early guillotine choke by GSP, but then recovered to take the first round with some excellent takedown defense and some hard elbows and punches from the clinch. The second round also went firmly to Hendricks, who rocked St-Pierre on numerous occasions and had him badly hurt, while GSP’s strikes seemed to be doing nothing at all to the challenger.
GSP did do enough to win both the third and fifth rounds – the third saw him finally use his striking to back Hendricks up, while the fifth saw him outgrapple the challenger seemingly by sheer willpower alone. But those rounds sandwiched a terrible fourth for him, in which he slipped to his back and had Hendricks on top in guard, dominating with ground-and-pound.
It seemed like the only possible decision was 48-47 for Hendricks, but despite one judge going that way, the other two went 48-47 and St-Pierre retained his title before taking an extended leave of absence. The decision not only angered the fans but also UFC President Dana White, who was furious with GSP’s decision to walk away without offering Hendricks a rematch.
In hindsight, it could be argued that Hendricks attempted to coast the fifth round and thus threw the fight away, but realistically there’s no way he should ever have lost the decision anyway after such a performance. It was one he could never quite live up to too, as after winning the vacant title five months later, he failed to defend it and has since lost 6 of his 8 subsequent fights.
