Given that he is a former welterweight and middleweight champ, it is safe to say that Georges St-Pierre certainly packs a bit of a punch. Anthony Mackie got to experience that firsthand, when he took a full shot to the face from the former champ during the filming of “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.”
During his time in the UFC, GSP put together a resume that is worthy of being called the Greatest Of All Time. Not only did he have the longest reign in welterweight history, but he walked away from the sport as champ, only to return and capture a second title at middleweight.
Following the end of his career in the cage, St-Pierre took up a career on screen. In particular, his most prominent role to date has been that of Batroc in Marvel’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier and The Falcon and the Winter Solider.
Georges St-Pierre Punched Anthony Mackie
In his role in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Georges St-Pierre spent a lot of time on screen fighting heroes. Chief among these was Anthony Mackie, who portrayed the titular Falcon.
Apparently, as Mackie explained in an interview with USA Today, there was a time that things did not go to plan while filming with the French-Canadian. While the pair worked on a fight scene, he says that Georges decked him in the face with a full-on punch.
“We were doing our fight sequence and he actually punched me in the face,” Mackie said. “And I have to say, I took a full punch from Georges St-Pierre and I did not go down. Everybody saw it, they have it on tape. And then I took a full kick to the chest and I went down, but it didn’t knock me out.”
That said, it is clear that GSP did not mean any malice by the accidental strikes to his on-screen adversary. In fact, he explained in an interview how much he loved working with Mackie, and that he actually got hurt more from punching Anthony.
“Anthony’s amazing. He’s an amazing actor and he’s someone who’s very charismatic. He makes everyone laugh on the set. One day we spent a lot of hours on the choreography and there’s a scene where I punch and he ducks under, and I wasn’t able to pull the punch on time,” St-Pierre said.
“With his equipment, he has to duck under and my arm touched his head and I kind of clipped him on the elbow,” GSP continued. “But he’s a hell of tough of a guy, let me tell you that. He stood up right away and I told him ‘You’re probably the only human being that I ever hit, that I think I got more hurt than you.'”
It could not have been easy for Anthony Mackie to take a shot from Georges St-Pierre. However with the paycheck that likely comes along with starring in a high budget production like that, it must have been worth it.
