Georges "Rush" St-Pierre (born May 19, 1981), often referred to as GSP, is a Canadian mixed martial arts fighter. He is the current Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) welterweight champion, and is generally regarded as one of the best pound for pound fighters in the world.
St-Pierre has been lauded by many media outlets for his skills; he is currently ranked by multiple MMA publications as the #1 welterweight in the world, as well as the 2008 Most Outstanding Fighter, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
St-Pierre had dreamed of becoming a UFC champion since watching Royce Gracie fight in 1993 at UFC 1. St. Pierre had his first amateur bout when he was only 16 years old. He states, "When I won my first amateur (MMA) fight, I was 16 years old and I beat a guy that was 25. I was only a Kyokushin karate fighter and the guy I fought was a boxer. At the time my ground skills were very poor, I didn’t know anything on the ground.” St-Pierre won his fight by knockout, going low with several leg kicks and then going high with a kick to the head.
St-Pierre's pro debut was against Ivan Menjivar and ended in a first round TKO win. St-Pierre went on to win his next three fights before making his TKO debut against Pete Spratt at TKO 14 (November 29, 2003). St-Pierre defeated Spratt with a rear naked choke in the first round.