Stand-up striking is an area where St. Pierre may actually be a bit overrated. He certainly throws impressive looking strikes - Superman punches, spinning back kicks, etc. - but his numbers don't rank him near the elite strikers in the game. St. Pierre lands 43% of his stand-up strikes, which is above the fighter average of 35%, but nowhere near the accuracy of Anderson Silva, who connects at a rate of 70%. He's only knocked down two of his opponents (Matt Hughes and Jay Hieron), and as Serra proved, he can be knocked out.
One exceptional thing about St. Pierre's stand-up, though, is the way he mixes up his targets. Most fighters overwhelmingly focus on the head, throwing about five head strikes for every strike thrown to the body and legs. A serial headhunter like Wanderlei Silva will throw nearly 10 head strikes per body shot. The consequence is that this makes their striking patterns more predictable and easier to avoid. St. Pierre's striking is less predictable, as he throws only 2.3 strikes to the head per attempt to the body and legs.
However, it is on the ground where St. Pierre's striking is strongest. Utilizing a relentless ground-and-pound attack, St. Pierre connects on 60% of his heavy strikes and lands them at a rate that is twice that of the average fighter.
Wathcing the boxing fights on Sat. I was actually thinking it would be great to adapt some sort of compubox type system to MMA. It'd be difficult calculating elbows, knees, kicks to head/body/legs, takedowns, sub attempts/succesful subs, etc.
But if someone figured out how to do it, it would really be great. Maybe even help us with a better rating system? Either way, it'd be interesting to see where people fall witha system like that.
As for GSP's stand-up. I do think it improves with every fight. I think his Muay Thai is improving and that's helped him mix up the targets. He'll keep getting even better, I think.
BTR - I was actually thinking it would be great to adapt some sort of compubox type system to MMA. if someone figured out how to do it, it would really be great.
"I was actually thinking it would be great to adapt some sort of compubox type system to MMA. if someone figured out how to do it, it would really be great."
Inside MMA also have their 'Smack Track', lol at the name.
I dont think it can be overated anymore because we've talked about this at length for quite some time now ;p
I agree GSP's pure striking ability may not be all that as we thought as he's had trouble with BJ (though on the flipside, BJ's striking performance that night was way more overrated) and Serra. People mention he can only outstriker wrestlers like they said about Chuck even though Chuck now beat Wand. People also have to remember that being able to outstrike wrestlers like Hughes is an elite art in itself. How many people could stay on their feet long enough to throw more than 2 strikes at someone like Hughes or Kos?
I also agree with the poster in that GSP makes good use of a variety of strikes and targets. His foot work is also great as we know and he also mixes up striking and tds as well as anyone in the game.
Wasa-B - People mention he can only outstriker wrestlers like they said about Chuck even though Chuck now beat Wand. People also have to remember that being able to outstrike wrestlers like Hughes is an elite art in itself. How many people could stay on their feet long enough to throw more than 2 strikes at someone like Hughes or Kos?
JMO, but I believe the observation that he doesn't fully commit to his strikes has to do with his strategy and ability to avoid takedowns. His game is based around being light on his feet and dictating the TD game. He gives up throwing power shots most of the time in order to be able to defend potential TD attempts. I believe people observing his Hughes III training camp also noted this when they saw guys like Rashad and Marquardt unable to take GSP down.
