Eight years ago today, Georges St-Pierre woke up from what likely was an after-party deep into the night in his home city and probably wondered who would be next.
St-Pierre headlined UFC 124 at Bell Centre in his home city of Montreal on Dec. 11, 2010. He beat Josh Koscheck in the main event with a scorecard sweep and a trio of 50-45 tallies from the judges.
The win was the eighth straight for St-Pierre and was a rematch against Koscheck, whom he beat by unanimous decision at UFC 74 in 2007 in his first fight back after losing the welterweight title in a shocking upset to Matt Serra. That first bout with Koscheck wound up being the last non-title fight St-Pierre was part of.
#OnThisDay eight years ago… @GeorgesStPierre proved AGAIN he was the WW
! pic.twitter.com/X3TXHOMFH0
— UFC (@ufc) December 12, 2018
! His next time out, he won the interim 170-pound title with a submission of all-time great Matt Hughes, then unified the belts with a win over Serra at UFC 83. Before he beat Koscheck in their title fight, he had title defenses over Jon Fitch, B.J. Penn, Thiago Alves and Dan Hardy, and all were dominant wins.
So after beating Koscheck, St-Pierre had to have been wondering just who might emerge as his next challenger. That eventually wound up being Jake Shields in just his second UFC fight after coming over from Strikeforce as that promotion’s middleweight champion.
Eight years after the world woke up to yet another dominant St-Pierre victory, take a look back at his win over Koscheck, which left the challenger’s face battered with a broken orbital that required surgery.
St-Pierre went on to defend the welterweight belt four more times before vacating it to retire. Four years later, in November 2017, he returned and won the middleweight title to become a two-division champion. He vacated that belt, as well, for medical reasons – but continues to tease a potential return.
Koscheck won two fights after losing to St-Pierre, but then dropped his final six – five by stoppage. After exiting the UFC on a five-fight skid, he signed with Bellator and lost his lone fight there before officially retiring earlier this year.
Take a look at the UFC’s highlights from St-Pierre vs. Koscheck in the video and photo gallery above.
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