EUGENIZATION.

Having achieved a decisive victory over Matt Hughes, George St. Pierre is the new UFC welterweight champion. I am glad all of his hard training has paid off.

We (the afternoon class at Renzo Gracie’s Jiu Jitsu Academy) were party to a unique view of the fight, since our teacher, John Danaher, flew out to California to help St. Pierre prepare for his fight against Hughes. John was back in the Academy yesterday teaching class and sharing with us all the various aspects of the fight.

John was kind enough to break down the events of each round, St. Pierre’s striking strategy and rationale for using which tool at which specific time, and gave a breakdown of the gameplan for the fight. It was incredibly interesting to see familiar concepts from sports training and psychology applied in a real-life sporting event. Many of the concepts St. Pierre used were similar to those used by other pro-level athletes in their respective disciplines.

(Out of courtesy to John and St. Pierre, I’m afraid that’s as specific as I can get regarding the gameplan).

There’s no denying that both Hughes and St. Pierre are supremely conditioned athletes. However, what won the fight Saturday night was not a battle of attributes, but a matter of strategic preparation. Hughes, being the dynamo that he is, has one gameplan only: steamroll the competition; outpower and outgun the opponent. Well, earlier we caught a glimpse of what happens when you encounter an opponent skilled enough to neutralize the blitzkrieg - Hughes nearly lost to an out-of-shape BJ Penn in the previous UFC tournament. Contrast that with Hughes’ performance against a prepared fighter with a strategy to take advantage of Hughes’ limited gameplan.

One anecdote was particularly telling: John told us that during the break between rounds 1 and 2, Hughes asked Miletech (Pat Miletech, his coach) what he should do against St. Pierre, since “nothing was working.” Miletech was heard to have told Hughes, “Just keep trying.” Miletech is a top-notch coach, but he failed Hughes here; there’s no excuse not to have a Plan B. At least help your fighter out and try to improvise one on the spot based on your observations during the fight!

“Proper planning and execution yields powerful results.”

Hmm, sounds like something I’ve heard somewhere before…

Congratulations to St. Pierre on winning the championship, and good luck in the rematch.