Can GSP Get His Groove Back? @BasRuttenMMA Opines

Bas Rutten Breaks Down GSP

Has Georges St. Pierre lost his killer instinct? A lot of people are wondering these days.

It is a pretty ridiculous question given the fashion in which St. Pierre has dominated his last nine fights. But six of those nine fights went the distance, including his last four victories.

I say a win is a win. But Bas Rutten took a more nuanced look at the question via Twitter (He used Twitlonger). @BasRuttenMMA offered some valuable insight to the enigma that is GSP:

“For sure he plays it safe, this happens most of the time when something bad happened the last time he DIDN’T play it safe. For instance, did he had the killer instinct before he fought Matt Serra? Because if got reckless in that fight, it cost him his fight, from that moment on, you kind of make a decision as a fighter, do I wanna fight like that again? The answer will be NO. So then fighters start to fight more conservative. Now, if that particular fighter had a killer instinct before, it will most of the time come back after a couple of wins. “

But it has already been more than a couple of wins for GSP, and he still isn’t being hyper-aggressive. On the other hand, he is extremely dominant. Thus the enigma.

Bas went on to point out that GSP has nine victories by decision, and six of those followed his loss by KO to Matt Serra. He also noted that his stoppages of B.J. Penn, Serra and Matt Hughes were far from slugfests. Bas expounded on how much GSP’s game changed since he got knocked out:

“In the 13 fights he had before he fought Matt Serra, he lost only one (Hughes, and he revenged that) so 12 wins. From those 12 wins only 3 went a decision, the rest were KO’s and submissions. So the Matt Serra fight definitely had impact on him, then again, his competition started to get better as well.”

Rutten explained that not all fighters can change their game like that. He offered Chuck Liddell as an example, which makes sense. Liddell would fight the same way no matter how many times in a row he had been knocked out. That is proven. Rutten said that GSP is “wired” differently:

“Other fighters fight more preserved, a counter fighter, they have a few offensive attacks, attacks they will learn before the fight and change each fight, but mostly fight on the mistakes that the opponent makes, capitalize on that mistake, and finish the opponent. GSP is a fighter like that.
If there comes an opportunity, he will take it and win a fight. But when he fights a guy who also fights reserved and is a counter fighter (50% of Shields wins are by decision) then you have a match that we saw last weekend, not an exciting one.”

Spot on analysis by Bas.

But with one questioned answered, another arises: Can GSP get his killer instinct back?