Competitive eaters experience discomfort during their binge-eating sessions, but power through the fear of potentially exploding by keeping their eyes on prizes that include a championship belt, money, and the pinnacle: a sponsorship by Pepto Bismol. In this example, Pepto Bismol is the Nike of culinary sports and Joey Chestnut is their Anderson Silva. He understands that you tune-in just to watch him eat 70 hot dogs every Fourth of July, and he always delivers for his fans. Chestnut knows. There is absolutely no reason why his name shouldn’t be in the sports hall of fame for defending his Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating title every year since 2007. Not only is he the undisputed champion of eating, he never leaves a table until he has finished everything on the plate.
Despite clearing out an entire division, GSP remains one of the most criticized champions in the UFC outside of Jon Jones, but that’s only because St. Pierre has taken most of 2012 off with a knee injury and folks tend to forget about you when you’re not actively competing. Fans are brutal critics when MMA fighters coast to victory in place of taking chances and finishing fights. In an interview with the Toronto Sun, GSP breaks down why it’s not always that easy to finish fights…
“I want to finish because of the criticism,” said St. Pierre, who has seen five of his last six fights go to decision.
“I’ve listened to the critics and I want to become more opportunistic,” says St. Pierre.
“(It bugs me) but at the same time, my last fight wasn’t that great. I got poked in the eye,” said the 31-year-old of his five-round domination of Jake Shields at UFC 129.
“I can make up a bunch of excuses but the truth is I’m fighting the best guys all the time and it’s tough competition. You cannot always win by beautiful fashion. The guy that is in front of me is a very good guy. He’s the No. 1 contender all the time and now I’m fighting the (interim) world champ in Carlos Condit. I’m working a lot more on being more opportunistic and it’s going to pay off I’m sure.”
“When I see an opportunity, I don’t need to overthink it and I need to go for it,”
“I think that my opponents have become better in time. Sometimes, when you break a guy mentally, he doesn’t fight to win anymore, he fights to not lose and to survive. That minimizes the opportunity for him to be finished. And that’s what’s happening in a lot of my fights and it’s hard to finish a guy who doesn’t fight to win.”
It remains to be seen if George St. Pierre will train with Joey Chestnut for his upcoming fight with Carlos Condit. Perhaps they could meet on Canadian soil and obliterate a stadium’s worth of poutine several weeks out from the fight, just to test GSP’s mental strength. Let’s be honest, you don’t really care if GSP misses weight. You just want a plate of poutine and to see him finish a fight. We do too.
