King Georges: Georges St-Pierre rules the UFC's welterweight division. But can the stylish and personable Canadian become the sport's next breakout star?

Men's Fitness, Feb, 2009 by Sean Hyson

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY ROGER ERICKSON

Golf has Tiger. Basketball has LeBron. Mixed martial arts? Still waiting. The popular sport has certainly had its share of colorful characters and even icons, guys like Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell, whose popularity extends beyond MMA's growing fan base. But the sport still hasn't found the guy with the juice to transcend its core, someone who pitches sports drinks as easily as sinking in a submission hold and who looks as comfortable in Ralph Lauren as he does punching out an opponent.

Some came close. Just as Liddell, the UFC's former light-heavyweight champ, was gaining widespread media exposure (an appearance on HBO's Entourage, and on the cover of ESPN: The Magazine and MF), he suffered a crushing defeat to Quinton "Rampage" Jackson in 2007, hurting his status as the sport's flagship face. Last fall, former street fighter turned MMA sensation Kimbo Slice was KO'd in 14 seconds by a no-name journeyman, and in November, Couture was pummeled by rising UFC heavyweight Brock Lesnar. Finding a champ with staying power and charisma remains elusive. Enter Georges St-Pierre, the reigning UFC welterweight champ (17-2 career record). At 27, he has the looks, personality, and (most important) the fighting skills to become MMA's first truly trancendant household name. "He has the chance" says Darren Rovell, a sport business reporter for CNBC. "The issue with mixed martial arts is that it's been so shifty in establishing a champion, [but] he's showing the beginnings of being a guy whose name people will know."

A native of Montreal, St-Pierre already has his own action figure, clothing line, and even movie roles. But first he must defend his title against lightweight champ BJ Penn at UFC 94 on Jan. 31. That takes precedence over transcendent superstardom. "Four or five weeks before a fight" says Phil Nurse, St-Pierre's Muay Thai coach and owner of Wat, New York City's premier Muay Thai gym, "all of his other obligations stop so he can train" St-Pierre's manager, Shad Spencer, corroborates this. "Any business meetings or appearances [are done] before he goes into lockdown for a fight."

That is a strategy born of experience. Five months after first earning the title in November 2006, with a second-round TKO of Matt Hughes, St-Pierre was shocked in his first defense of the belt by Matt Serra, a heavy underdog, in a first-round knockout. "[Georges] believed all the hype," says Nurse. "People were telling him that he'd kill Serra, that [he didn't] even need to train for him. Georges was only 25, so it got to him".

He reclaimed his title last April in a rematch with Serra, pummeling him in a second-round TKO and is now poised to find stardom outside the Octagon. The humiliation of St-Pierre's loss, only the second of his career, may be the one thing that helps him hold on to the belt this time. "[Before the first Serra fight], I was thinking that I'm genetically gifted and don't need to train as much as some other people," he told MF in New York last fall. "The hardest fight is that first rifle defense. When you're champion, you have that illusion that you're in a box. But that's an illusion, and I learned it the hard way."

Consumed with avenging the loss, St-Pierre was punishing himself in the gym two days later. But he also had much work to do outside of training. He still had to deal with the mental scars. "My sports psychologist told me that I wasn't focusing on the right thing," says GSP (as he's known to fans). "[He gave me a brick] and told me, 'This brick is Matt Serra. If you carry it around with you one day, it's not really that heavy. But if you carry it around with you every day, it's going to get heavier and heavier on you. So take it, write down "Matt Serra" on it, and throw it in the river when you're ready." St-Pierre did just that, carrying the brick around with him for a few weeks. When he felt he could keep Serra off his mind, he tossed it. "I felt so much better. It was amazing." He began his comeback by grinding Josh Koscheck, a powerful wrestler, in a unanimous decision victory.

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The aftermath of his loss to Serra was a watershed time in St-Pierre's career in other ways, too. He switched managers and joined elite MMA coach Greg Jackson's team so he could be pushed by the same man who brought UFC contenders Diego Sanchez, Keith Jardine, and Rashad Evans to prominence. Additionally, he hired Montreal-based strength and conditioning coach Jonathan Chaimberg. "I cleaned up some of the people in my life and my entourage," he says. "It was hard, but it was necessary to take the next step in my career."

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His new training regimen shored up some of GSP's physical liabilities. "He was really, really weak for a professional athlete," says Chaimberg, who also trains the Canadian Olympic wrestling team. "He struggled with eight body-weight chinups. He was struggling with a 55-pound dumb-bell bench press." Chaimberg introduced St-Pierre to Olympic weightlifting exercises and plyometrics for power development and put him through tough circuit workouts that built strength and endurance. "He's probably the most gifted athlete you'll ever meet," says Chaimberg. "He could have been [any kind of athlete]. He soaks things up very easily. He's a freak."