He is the face of cage fighting — and not always a pretty one. The Canadian mixed martial artist Georges St-Pierre has reigned supreme over ultimate fighting for more than six years. He is a model, multimillionaire and as much a poster boy for his sport as Muhammad Ali was for 1970s boxing or David Beckham for 1990s soccer.
However, just as the controversial sport is planning a bold European expansion, a problem has arisen. After a particularly messy recent fight, St-Pierre vacated his welterweight belt and announced an indefinite break from the sport. It could not have come at a worse time for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) organization.
The UFC enterprise, reportedly worth US$2 billion, pits fighters employing submission wrestling, punches and kicks against one another inside an octagonal cage.
Photo: USA TODAY / Stephen R. Sylvanie
It was once denounced as “human cockfighting” by US Senator John McCain, but the sport has been sanitized and had a major public relations makeover in the past decade, with St-Pierre as its main pin-up.
The UFC’s European business plan, led by former Manchester City chief executive Garry Cook, involves building up regional fighters into headline brawlers through a series of reality TV shows known as The Ultimate Fighter, along with live, ticketed shows. Events are being planned for countries including the UK, Ireland, Poland, Germany and Sweden for next year.
However, the aspiring champions and the ticket sellers will not have St-Pierre to draw on, either as their inspiration or part of their marketing pitch.
The 32-year-old has said he needs time to focus on his personal life and to get over his habit of focusing obsessively on his next fight, no matter how far in the future it may be.
As welterweight champion since August 2007, he said the same success that turned him into an international celebrity led to his decision to withdraw from the sport.
“The situation that I’m in, it’s a lot of pressure. It’s like every fight I’m carrying weight on my shoulder and every fight it’s like you add weight ... and add weight and add weight. At one point it becomes so heavy that I have a hard time carrying it myself,” he said.
St-Pierre has profited greatly from his exploits. He has a UFC contract worth US$9 million a year, plus another US$3 million in sponsorships and endorsements, according to Forbes magazine. He wrote a bestselling book, The Way of the Fight, that is a mix of biography and inspirational fan guide. He also has a role in the forthcoming film Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and lent his voice to the French-language version of the animated children’s movie Monster University.
However, not even the most talented makeup artist could reproduce the damage done to St-Pierre’s face in a five-round title fight last month, after which he gave his first hint of the decision that was coming.
The champion said that at one point during his savaging by Johny Hendricks, a powerful former college wrestler from Oklahoma, he could no longer see out of his right eye and that he had “lost a little bit of memory of what happened.”
“My brain got bashed left and right inside my skull,” he said. “So I just need to think about what’s going to happen.”
His comments turned questions about his physical and mental health into doubts about the future of the fast-rising sport as a whole.
The pay-per-view orders double or triple when St-Pierre is on the bill, as they do for recently injured Brazilian Anderson Silva, UFC’s middleweight champion from 2006 until July this year.
“I think it’s definitely an issue. He’s arguably their top pay-per-view draw, him and Anderson Silva,” said Steven Salaga, an assistant professor of sport management business at the Florida Institute of Technology who has written on the UFC’s business model. “If they lose both of those two at the same time, that’s certainly a bigger issue.”
Andre Richelieu, a professor of sports marketing at Quebec City’s Laval University, said the UFC must now renew itself by creating “new superstars who will act as emotional anchors” for those who may feel set adrift by St-Pierre’s absence.
It may also be a lesson for the future to spread celebrity more evenly and with it the risk to the sport when one main draw disappears, he said.
UFC president Dana White appears to have already taken that lesson to heart.
The timeless story of “the fight game” involves old champs being replaced by new ones, he said, before the promoter in him took over.
“The story isn’t finished yet. The guy’s going to go deal with his stuff,” he said. “It’s like you put a bookmark in it and we wait to see how this story ends.”
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
DOUBLES PAYBACK: Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Martens avenged their defeat in the quarters at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open against Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium dispatched Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani 6-1, 6-4 to set up a clash against Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez for a spot in the final of the WTA 1000 tournament. Hsieh and Martens made a blistering start to their rematch after they lost to Schuurs and Stefani in the quarter-finals at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open last month, winning three games without reply at the start of the first set