Georges St. Pierre suffers shock loss to underdog Matt Serra at UFC 69: Shootout

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/04/2007 (6852 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

HOUSTON (CP) – Matt (The Terror) Serra promised a shock result and he delivered. He even explained how prior to taking the welterweight title away from Montreal’s Georges St. Pierre on Saturday night at UFC 69: Shootout.

“There’s nobody unstoppable in MMA (mixed martial arts). There’s so many ways to win and lose,” he told reporters in a conference call last Monday. “You know, someone zigged when they should have zagged and the fight could be over.”

That’s exactly what happened Saturday night before a crowd of 15,269 at the Toyota Center.

Midway through the first round, Serra (16-4) caught St. Pierre with a right hook, stunning the 170-pound champion. St. Pierre (13-2) said later the blow had caught him on the carotid artery.

The 25-year-old Canadian fell backwards. He got up and tried to buy some time by attempting to taking Serra down. But the 32-year-old jiu-jitsu black belt from Long Island, N.Y., refused to get tangled, maintained his space and kept throwing. The champion went down and Serra fired punches from above until referee (Big) John McCarthy stopped it at 3:25 of the first round.

“At this level, when you make a mistake you lose,” St. Pierre said later, sporting a welt under his left eye.

The bout had not excited too many in advance. St. Pierre seemed a lock – younger, bigger, faster and better equipped than Serra.

Plus Serra earned his title shot the Hollywood route by winning Season 4 of “The Ultimate Fighter” reality TV show, which focused on veterans making a comeback.

St. Pierre, in contrast, had cut a swath through the welterweight division to get another crack at longtime champion Matt Hughes after losing by submission in 2004. St. Pierre dismantled Hughes in the rematch to take the title in November.

No wonder UFC president Dana White called the Serra win “probably the biggest upset in MMA in a long time.” Serra was anywhere from a 9-1 to 11-1 underdog, depending on the bookmaker.

St. Pierre appeared on target early on, pressing the fight and keeping Serra honest with a string of high kicks. But he unravelled after the right to the head.

“I felt it connect,” Serra said.

St. Pierre’s reign as champion lasted one fight and 4½ months, a rule extended by a knee injury that postponed the bout which was originally set for Feb. 3. And no one on the face of the planet felt worse than the classy Quebecer.

“This is my worst nightmare,” said St. Pierre, who both congratulated Serra and apologized to his fans.

“I didn’t take him lightly.” he added. “I trained really hard for this. I got beat. I have no excuse.”

But he promised to return – stronger next time. “I climbed Everest once and I will climb it again.”

Serra, the shiny belt sitting in front of him. was equally gracious in victory at the post-fight news conference.

“Georges is a phenomenal fighter and I still think he’s going to be the future of the sport. And I feel bad for his next opponent.”

For his part, Serra proved he is more than a jiu-jitsu guy. And he adds another chapter to a career revitalized by a TV show that showed him as a fine coach and a good guy.

His win also gives a boost to reality TV. Earlier in the day in his native Wales, WBO super-middleweight boxing champion Joe Calzaghe stopped Peter Manfredo, runner-up on “The Contender” TV show. Manfredo was a top-10 contender, but failed his title exam,

The St. Pierre loss is bad news to Canadian MMA fans on a couple of fronts, probably deep-sixing a planned card in Montreal for later this year. But White said Serra would fight Hughes next, keeping alive the possibility of a St. Pierre-Hughes rubber match.

Hughes was ringside and loving it when St. Pierre lost.

Serra is about to get married, so any future bouts may take a backseat for a little while.

Earlier, Josh Koscheck handed Diego (Nightmare) Sanchez his first loss, winning a unanimous decision in their welterweight grudge match.

The fight was light on action and did not live up to its billing, mainly because Koscheck (11-1) controlled Sanchez (19-1) throughout, thereby restricting the action. Sanchez seemed stumped and his offence never got unstuck.

“I personally was disappointed in the fight,” White said. “I thought they stood and stared too much and didn’t let their hands go as much as they should have. But at the end of the day, Josh put together a good game plan and Diego fell right into it.”

Sanchez did not attend the post-fight news conference. St. Pierre did, his face the picture of disappointment as he sat on the podium.

There were many reasons to favour St. Pierre going into the bout. He was seen as the poster boy for the new breed of MMA fighter, combining equal skills in striking, wrestling and jiu-jitsu with raw athleticism,

On Saturday night, the buffed champion entered the ring like one of the Spartans from the film 300. Four inches shorter at 5-6 and minus St. Pierre’s six-pack, Serra looked more like one of the Hobbits in “Lord of The Rings.”

The Serra win is probably a mixed blessing for the UFC. The upset win is vindication for giving “The Ultimate Fighter” winner a title shot. But losing the popular St. Pierre as a champion is a setback.

There were some stellar fights on the night.

Roger (El Matador) Huerta won a decision over Leonard (Bad Boy) Garcia in an entertaining lightweight slugfest that White called “one of the best fights I’ve ever seen,”

Middleweight Kendall Grove also looked impressive in having his way with Alan Belcher (9-3) before choking him out at 4:42 of the second round.

Japanese middleweight Yushin Okami moved up the middleweight ladder by spoiling Mike (Quick) Swick’s homecoming, handling the Houston native via unanimous decision. It was Okami’s fourth straight win in the UFC and Swick’s first loss in the circuit after five victories.

“He’s a big dog in the’5-pound division now,” White said of Okami, who joins former title-holder Rich Franklin in watching what happens in July when middleweight champion Anderson Silva meets Nate Marquardt.

Notes: The gate of U$2.8 million was the biggest in the history of the Toyota Center, beating the Rolling Stones by $1 million. . . . White says the next cities on the UFC horizon are Chicago, Atlanta, Washington DC, Boston and New York. . . . The card marked the UFC’s first foray in Texas. White used the occasion to introduce former Pride Fighting Championships heavyweight champion Antonio Rodrigo (Minotauro) Nogueira of Brazil as the newest addition to the UFC.