Let’s take a look at what happened in the most controversial UFC title match between George St-Pierre and Johny Hendricks.

Seeing Silva lose his title to Weidman at UFC 162, Jon Jones failed to defend against Gustafsson at UFC 165, fans could not help but worry when George St Pierre entered the 9th consecutive title defense match against Johnny Hendricks at UFC 167.

And that concern has come true because Hendricks broke a series of 5 consecutive victories with a sledgehammer left hand that made the Canadian champion go through the most difficult 5 rounds of his career.

Johny Hendricks confronted George St Pierre at UFC 167 in 2013

Right from the first half, Hendricks made GSP difficult because of his strong hand. Except for the situation that almost led to a squeeze in the first half, the Canadian boxer fought back very hard against the fighting style of the challenger.

Unlike George St Pierre’s earlier rivals, both in standing and in wrestling, Hendricks did not appear to be outmoded in any way.

For the first time in years, GSP encountered a complete fighter, both standing, and wrestling like Hendricks. Even so, Hendricks’s resistance to wrestling with a series of knee blows and rear hand shocks made the GSP’s Wrestling forte ineffective.

In the second half, an upper-cut from Hendricks caused GSP to wobble, luckily for the champion when his sanity helped him survive the second half of the game. This is arguably the brightest spot of Hendricks since the beginning of the match.

In the third half, GSP started to rise when Hendricks revealed a loophole in the anti-wrestling phase. “The Rush” now changed its active interception strategy with left jabs and counter-attacks, slowing the opponent’s attack rhythm.

However, GSP still lost points before a fall of Hendricks at the end of the half, but the control time was not much for the challenger to regain the game.

Johny Hendricks lost points in the third half

In the fourth half, heavy attacks from Hendricks left two serious tears on GSP’s cheeks. By the 5th half, the new physical advantage caused GSP to have 2 successful knockdown situations, bringing the game again to a close point division. At the end of 5 innings, the scoreboard was announced with a close victory for George St Pierre with the score (48-47 x2, 48-47 for Hendricks).