Did GSP Have KO Power?

[Mark McMichael]

....

One of the great ironies of a fighter tapping to strikes and then the haters, blaming them for that is that if they simply had an already broken and weaker chin and simply went out cold, then that exact same loss would be seen as a loss by a "warrior". Instead of tapping just black out.

And so instead in MMA we see some guys take horrific beatings as they do not black out and yet are taking career shortening beatings that are likely to end in brain damage after fighting. Most outside the most ignorant just bleed fans are begging the ref to stop the fight as the guy just eats shot after shot. All this and if instead the guy had a weaker chin, he would just black out and be saved from the constant punches. So it is often the toughest chin guys who get this hate. Fans think they need to just eat JDS/Cain type abuse that shortens their career and impacts their life to prove how tough they are.

 

[Andy Capp]

I would love to see how many shots you cold take from Serra. From the time he rocked GSP to the time Jon McCarthy called a TKO Georges took over 40 hard strikes. Most fighters and yes even most Sherdoggers would be out cold. GSP has the best chin in MMA history.

Yes, I recall his quick recovery from the boot to the head Condit gave him.

 

[BForrester]

Of course he did...pretty much any MMA fighter has KO power if they commit to, and place their punches. GSP used his striking mostly to beat up his opponents and set up his grappling.

 

[Kos Fan]

Yeah he had power, but he was most effective when he played it safe.

 

[KBE6EKCTAH_CCP]

Yet he’s never been finished by strikes, while GSP begged for mercy against a 5’6 LW

Casual hate post.
Many legends have tapped to strikes.
In early UFCs fighters would tap to exhaustion.
In boxing it is frequent that fighters quit between rounds.
But you are a loud annoying casual.

 

[AmericanUppercut]

GSP had GOAT POWER.
GSP is the GOAT
the rest are tied for 2nd.

 

[mjfan23]

All I know is he has a higher finishing rate than snoozeman

 

[jx820]

He absolutely had KO power. We have seen him absolutely crack some of his opponents with big shots.

He just did not want to plant his feet and throw hard. His signature strike was an incredibly long jab thrown from as far outside as possible. He was playing as safe as possible.

 

[Krixes]

No.... He looked the part but was actually a volume puncher. It would've been unfair if he had natural KO power....

 

[Saiyok]

No, he didn’t have much power and he never really committed to his punches. His strikes were there to score points, not to KO someone.

Usman is way more dangerous striker than GSP

GSP one punches Usman, get over it.

 

[Migdagen]

You can clearly see that his punches had some decent impact and GSP could have got a clean KO with some luck. I remember during his fight vs Shield he had trained exactly for that and seemed pretty pump by his new found power (don't blink comment to mind), so I guess it was promising during sparring session. But we just never got to see it in the octagon, which is not surprising since he only fought guys with good chins except Bisping from that point on.

 

[airic_15]

Short left hook dropping a middleweight

 

[killakillakilla]

Nah not really. He did have a mean super man punch though

 

[ninjion]

I honestly think that GSP made a tradeoff in power for his amazing MMA wrestling.

GSP had great timing/reflexes which made him amazing at sprawling to defend takedowns, and shooting takedowns himself, despite no wrestling background. However, I think if he really planted his feet in the ground and committed to his punches more, he wouldn't have been able to do these as effectively. So in my opinion GSP chose to be light on his feet and sacrifice his KO power to be able to control where a fight went. It worked out pretty well for him since he was able to keep fights standing against wrestlers and take strikers to the ground.

 

[fractal]

Every fighter has KO power, at least most of them. You land enough punches on anyone and you will KO them eventually. But as far as one shot KO power, that wasn't GSP and he never tried to get it either.

 

[theleerygoose]

GSP was light on his feet and didnt really commit to his punches like Usman does.

 

[Masturbin]

Gsp had great power.
He just didn't commit much that's all.
A more boxing centric gsp dropped Bisping.

 

[WinningOne]

We saw during his fight with Bisping that when he plants his feet he can drop guys, but if he fought that way his whole career he would have had far more loses due to eating more shots.

 

[dragomanrd]

Didn't know how to punch? LMAO

The first TMA he learned was Kyokushin Karate*, and then he learned grappling, in the case of jiujitsu only by going all the way to the Gracie's gym in New York to train.

Give this a watch.


Now listen up.

To develop the power to knock someone out--leaving aside the proverbial "one you didn't see coming"--you have to plant your feet and commit. That leaves you wide open to counter-attack and hampered in the ability to defend. GSP was not all that different from the Diaz bros in that he preferred instead to repeatedly and aggressively damage his opponents while not expending much energy compared to head hunting--hence the appearance of incredible cardio though it had a lot to do with great technique--and while remaining more able to defend and so he took relatively little damage.

So, whether or not GSP had knockout power per se, it was never really his style from the beginning; rather he went for voluminous, heavy blows, which, as often as not, set up submissions when they didn't result in TKO's. In his first 7 fights, he won 3 by TKO due to strikes, 2 by submission, 1 was stopped due to a cut, and he had one decision. From the very start he brought such a wide array of tools to the game he never needed to rely on a risky fully committed strike that could leave him wide open to getting knocked out himself--until he lost his head prior to the first Serra fight, that is.

HTH

*Kyokushin, an extremely hard style, involves breaking more often than the other styles and full contact, knockdown sparring as a main part of its training.

More interesting background.

Here's some actual proof of what I am telling you:

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/georges-st-pierre
"St-Pierre was introduced to karate by his father at the age of seven.[snip]

At the age of 12, St-Pierre received his 2nd dan (degree) Kyokushin karate black belt. He continued to train in karate until his teacher, Jean Couture, died of lung cancer when Georges was 16 years old. Around that time, St-Pierre saw a video of Brazilian Royce Gracie fighting in UFC 1 in 1993 and got hooked on the sport. After that, he began training in wrestling, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, boxing and muay Thai, in addition to karate.
[snip]
St-Pierre made his professional debut in UCC 7 on 25 January 2002, fighting Ivan Menjivar of El Savador at the Verdun Auditorium in Montreal, Quebec. He won with a knockout late in the first round."

Nice comment, just a slight correction to the Ivan Menjivar fight, it ended in confusion when Ivan was telling the ref he was okay, the ref thought he was verbally tapping. Indeed Ivan is a bit tough to understand, having used to spar him myself. If you watch the fight Ivan was clearly still find and had GSP in open guard. Was a close fight up to that point. Both went on to be successful. Cheers.

 

[Mavrilicious]

No, he didn’t have much power and he never really committed to his punches. His strikes were there to score points, not to KO someone.

Usman is way more dangerous striker than GSP

Raw power, no.

Perfectly timed strikes in the right time and right placed mixed with deadly athleticism and stellar wrestle boxing?

Yes.