Georges St Pierre

On a November 2006 evening in Sacramento, two young fighters shared in victory inside the Ultimate Fighting Championship octagon. One was Georges St-Pierre, the now veteran welterweight champion who used his breakthrough win over Matt Hughes as a career-defining springboard to become the face of the UFC. The other was Brandon Vera, who that night defeated former heavyweight champion Frank Mir by first-round technical knockout, and then fell victim...

When he walked into the Octagon two years ago for a highly anticipated Ultimate Fighting Championship title bout, Georges St. Pierre stared with respect at his opponent, former welterweight champion Matt Hughes. Too much respect, St. Pierre says now. "I don't like to give excuses, but I didn't lose that fight to a better fighter. I lost because I was fighting my idol," St. Pierre said this week after concluding training for a rematch with Hughes tonight.

According to Georges St-Pierre, Frankie Edgar is the top pound-for-pound fighter in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. If veteran welterweight champion St-Pierre was basing that opinion merely on Edgar's unblinking acceptance to fight anyone in his weight range, he's got a case. Edgar (14-3-1) will participate in his seventh consecutive UFC title fight when he meets gifted Brazilian featherweight champion Jose Aldo (21-1) Feb. 2 at Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. The bout will be the first time Aldo headlines a U.S.-based pay-per-view.

In a decade, Lorenzo Fertitta has helped transform the sport of mixed martial arts from a niche contest dismissed as the activities of hooligans to a major television network deal and a monthly flow of millions of dollars with pay-per-view events in usually sold-out arenas. The chairman of the Las Vegas-based Ultimate Fighting Championship is preparing for his annual New Year's weekend card in Las Vegas on Dec. 30, which will feature a heavyweight main event marking the return of popular ex-champion Brock Lesnar versus the massive former champion of the Strikeforce MMA organization, Alistair Overeem.

Benson Henderson aspires to one day soon fight Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre. The UFC  lightweight champion will need to know he can take a mighty punch and deal with a strong ground-and-pound fighter before then. So his Saturday title defense against Gilbert Meldendez on the seventh UFC on Fox card at San Jose's HP Pavilion should be a good test. Melendez (21-2) is the former Strikeforce lightweight champion from San Francisco who made six successful title defenses before the organization folded into the UFC last year.

Georges St. Pierre is atop the welterweight class as Todd Martin unveils his November MMA rankings for The Times. The complete list: Heavyweight 1. Junior Dos Santos 2. Cain Velasquez 3. Alistair Overeem 4. Daniel Cormier 5. Fabricio Werdum 6. Josh Barnett 7. Frank Mir 8. Antonio Silva 9. Stefan Struve 10. Travis Browne The biggest UFC fight of next month takes place December 29, when Cain Velasquez rematches...

UFC welterweight title: Georges St. Pierre vs. Carlos Condit Georges St. Pierre at only 31 is already one of the legends of the sport. With a sparkling 22-2 record, no unavenged losses, and wins over just about every elite fighter of his generation, few fighters can match the credentials of St. Pierre. But St. Pierre is coming off a serious ACL injury and hasn't fought in a year and a half. St. Pierre didn't look that impressive in his last fight against Jake Shields, either.

Georges St. Pierre's next opponent will be his toughest one yet: Captain America. St. Pierre, the UFC welterweight champion who is considered by many to be the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world, has been cast as villain Batroc the Leaper in "Captain America: The Winter Soldier", the sequel to the 2011 hit "Captain America: The First Avenger. " Captain America fans will recognize Batroc as one of the iconic foes for Cap. He is a French mercenary who specializes in savate, a form of kickboxing.

There's only so much relief a cold compress, sips of water and a cornerman waving a torn piece of cardboard over you can provide. B.J. Penn, after taking a relentless beating on the mat for the final three of the four rounds he lasted against Georges St-Pierre, succumbed to a technical knockout stoppage by a ringside doctor and his corner before the fifth round began in Saturday night's showdown between the two Ultimate Fighting Championship belt-holders.