The UFC and mixed martial arts as a whole are filled with numerous controversies, whether it be things that happened before a fight took place, backstage proceedings, or the results of a fight. The latter is what is being talked about today, as two legends of the sport were engaged in one of the UFC's most controversial fights to ever take place.
Winning streaks are hard to come by in the Octagon, and these are the longest ones in UFC history. St-Pierre would win the fight via a split decision before vacating his title and taking some time away from the octagon. Let's take a look behind the curtain and see what exactly made this victory so controversial and why it is still being talked about today. There is a reason Georges St-Pierre is considered one of the greatest fighters to ever step into the octagon.
GSP can outperform almost anybody he steps up against and does not get defeated. Leading into , St-Pierre was on a ten-fight win streak and would increase that to eleven after beating Nick Diaz near the start of the year. The fight would be set for UFC , which served as a celebration of the company's 20th anniversary, on November 16th, St-Pierre also had the height and reach advantages going into the bout. Watching the fight back and taking a look at the scorecards, shows the fight was quite close all considered.
Breaking down the number of strikes shows that rounds 3 and 4 were given to St-Pierre, while rounds 1 and 5 went to Hendricks, with the 2nd round being a tie. Significant strikes do the same for the two and give a decent reason as to why the judges gave the fight a split decision. It's when going away from the judge's decisions and taking in media outlets, fans, and even Dana White himself. Looking at 16 total media outlets that reported about the fight, all of them from MMAJunkie.
Most fans immediately felt the same way, agreeing that Hendricks was more dominant and should have walked away with the belt, and Dana White after the event said that he thought St-Pierre took the most damage and shouldn't have won.
