PENICK: Inside the numbers of Georges St. Pierre's masterful dissection of Josh Koscheck at UFC 124

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Georges St. Pierre on Saturday night in Montreal brought one of the most dominating and one-sided striking displays in a Championship bout. It was the most impressive display since his old foe B.J. Penn picked Diego Sanchez apart last December, and the numbers for this fight were similar.

According to the FightMetric report for the bout, St. Pierre out-struck Koscheck 136-30 throughout the five round fight. That number included 55 jabs that continually busted up Koscheck's face and 55 leg kicks that both damaged Koscheck and kept him off balance in the bout.

In the "significant strikes" category, the numbers were even more telling. Of the 136 strikes landed by St. Pierre, 110 were deemed "significant," while only 15 of Koscheck's strikes throughout the fight fell in that category.

When you get to the round by round breakdowns, the one sided nature of the fight is even clearer. St. Pierre did much of the damage to Koscheck's right eye in the first round, where he landed 17 jabs out of his 26 landed strikes. Koscheck landed just seven total strikes, and only four landed to the head out of 23 thrown.

In the second it was much of the same, though St. Pierre ramped up the leg kicks and landed 13 jabs in 29 overall strikes landed. That was to just five landed by Koscheck.

Koscheck's most successful round was the third, where he landed 11 strikes, including six to the body. However, St. Pierre ramped up his production, landing 36 overall. Most of those were leg strikes, including knees in the clinch.

Koscheck's production was non-existent in the fourth round, as St. Pierre's combinations and timing blasted Koscheck with 21 overall strikes. As for the challenger, he landed one jab in the round, and that was all. He added a few body shots in the final frame, but landed no significant strikes as St. Pierre once again lit him up with combinations.

Statistics in and of themselves can't tell the whole story, but these numbers help paint the picture of St. Pierre's complete and utter dominance in this fight. Koscheck was simply rendered incapable of doing much of anything against the Champion in this fight, and it's a testament to St. Pierre's abilities that he was able to simply pick Koscheck apart in every round of this fight.

While St. Pierre may not have gotten the finish in this fight, he once again gave no reason to believe there is anyone in the welterweight division that can defeat him. He has now won 30 straight rounds in the Octagon if you include his finishes of Matt Serra and Matt Hughes, and at UFC 124 he once again showcased his dominance, and made a case for the title of "best MMA fighter on the planet."

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/penickstake/article_7816.shtml

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