UFC Hall of Famer Georges St-Pierre shares what he learned from his loss to Matt Hughes

Georges St-Pierre recently shared what he learned from his loss to Matt Hughes when he challenged him for the welterweight championship at UFC 50.

During his appearance on Full Send Podcast, St-Pierre reflected on his loss to Hughes and what he learned after watching it again. He mentioned that he held the Hall of Famer in a high regard, which ended up affecting his mentality and performance when he challenged him for the welterweight championship in only his third fight in the UFC.

He said:

"It's after the fight...I sit down and I watch the fight and I realize I was like, 'Man, I could've beat him.' And it taught me something, I should never put nobody on a pedestal. Everybody's a human being...He's a human being and I can beat him. So that's why when I fought him the second time and the third time, I beat him." [28:22 - 28:48]

The former two-division UFC champion also brought up that he was a lot more confident when he fought Hughes in the rematch and then again in their trilogy fight. 'Rush' mentioned that confidence was a major factor in his success, saying:

"I beat him more decisively because I had confidence and confidence is very important in everything you do. You could all the skills that you want but if you don't have confidence, it's like someone who has a lot of money in his bank account but no way of accessing it, so for the magic to happen, you need the skill and the confidence." [28:51 - 29:11]

St-Pierre avenged his loss to Hughes and defeated him via TKO at UFC 65 and submitted him at UFC 79.

Check out the full video:

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How many times did Georges St-Pierre defend the UFC welterweight championship?

Georges St-Pierre is regarded by many as the greatest welterweight of all time for his second reign as UFC welterweight champion. The title reign lasted 2064 days and saw him successfully retain it on 9 occasions.

'Rush' had defeated Matt Hughes via second-round TKO at UFC 65 to win the title, but it was a short lived reign as he was knocked out by Matt Serra in his first title defense.

After defeating Hughes a second time at UFC 79 to win the interim welterweight championship, 'GSP' unified the title by avenging his loss to Serra at UFC 83. His second reign was a legendary one as he defeated a number of top contenders and former champions including B.J. Penn, Jake Shields, Carlos Condit, and Nick Diaz.