MONTREAL – UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St-Pierre successfully defended his title for the fifth straight time with a unanimous decision win over Josh Koscheck Saturday night at “UFC 124: St-Pierre vs. Koscheck 2” at the Bell Centre in Quebec, Canada.
The opposing Ultimate Fighter season 12 coaches settled their feud in a 25-minute bout inside the Octagon that saw every round go to St-Pierre on all three judges’ score cards.
The night also saw a big knockout win for Mac Danzig and two impressive submissions by Jim Miller and Mark Bocek.
The following notes were taken from the UFC 124 post-fight press conference as fighters from the main card talked about their victories and UFC President Dana White gave his post fight report and thoughts on the event.
UFC 124 stats:
Attendance: 23,152
Live Gate: $4.586 million
Fight Night Bonuses:
Jim Miller and Mark Bocek will receive $50,000 each for both of their “Submissions of the Night”
Mac Danzig awarded $100,000 for his first round knockout of Joe Stevenson
Georges St-Pierre and Josh Koscheck receive $50,000 each for “Fight of the Night” as voted by the fans
Note: Dana said that he thought one of the preliminary card fights deserved the “Fight of the Night” and they will also be rewarded – but the fans voted for this one.
Dana White:
I love Georges, but Anderson Silva is the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
You gotta give it to Koscheck …. he stayed in that fight. I thought Georges fought a beautiful fight. He pitched a shut-out without wrestling. When you are at the top, people are going to criticize everything you do.
You can hate Josh Koscheck all you want but you have to admire his heart.
Georges St-Pierre vs. Anderson Silva – “We’ll see what happens.”
Considering GSP fighting on April 30 in Toronto: I don’t know yet.
White seems to agree with Dan Miller’s sentiments that he is one of the top guys in his division and deserves a title shot pretty soon.
Thiago Alves:
The Dolce Diet helped a lot with the weight. It’s not just a diet, but it’s a life choice of what you surround yourself with.
If I don’t take a guy down it’s not because I don’t know how, it’s because I don’t want to.
Georges St-Pierre:
I wanted to finish with knockout or submission but he’s very tough. My punches didn’t land on his chin as much as I wanted. I wanted to finish him. That was my goal and I didn’t achieve my goal.
Considering fighting on the Toronto card on April 30: I would love that, but it depends on the boss.
GSP spoke highly of Jake Shields and would like to see him win one more before getting a title shot.
It’s not the most satisfying win of my career because I didn’t reach my goal. I wanted to finish him. I know that I will be criticized.
GSP genuinely seemed very disappointed about not finishing Koscheck.
I felt I wobbled him but he protected himself very well.
GSP feels that Koscheck and he might meet again one day if Koscheck can put together some wins. He originally thought he may never have to fight him again, but after tonight, he thinks they may fight again one day. — He REALLY wanted to finish him.
The first fight I wanted to beat him with wrestling. This fight I wanted to beat him boxing.
If GSP goes up in weight class, he wants to stay there instead of moving up and down.
Howard Grant and Firas Zahabi are two coaches from Montreal that have helped GSP most with his boxing. Most of the credit goes to them instead of Freddie Roach according to GSP. He works with these guys all the time. He has only worked with Roach a few times.
Mac Danzig:
No I don’t feel like I can rest now. I need to put together a string of wins and I plan to do that. There’s no break, it’s back to the gym.
Stefan Struve:
The fight was easier than I thought it would be. Everything I tried I succeeded.
Struve said he was not concerned at any point during the fight. He also felt the fight was stopped at the appropriate time.
Jim Miller:
I was trying to get a little respect to be honest. I knew I had fought a lot tougher guys than he has. I wanted to do what I know I’m capable of doing. He didn’t worry about the knee and just kind of left his leg there.
“I’m not going to lie, it does eat at me a little bit. … I want my shot.”
An archive video of the UFC 124 post-fight press conference will be available for the next few days in our UFC ROOM.