George "GSP" St. Pierre

Georges "Rush" St-Pierre (born May 19, 1981), often referred to as GSP, is currently the Welterweight Champion of the UFC, and is ranked as one of the top "pound for pound" fighters by multiple MMA sources.

St-Pierre has been praised by many media outlets for his skill, and he is currently ranked by multiple MMA publications as the number-one welterweight in the world.

In 2008 and in 2009, he was named the Canadian Athlete of the Year by Rogers Sportsnet, as well as the 2008 Most Outstanding Fighter by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is a U.S.-based MMA promotion. Dana White serves as the president of the UFC while Zuffa, LLC (controlled by Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta) owns the company.

Inspired by vale tudo competitions in Brazil, the UFC held its first competition in Denver, Colorado in 1993. Showcasing fighters of different proficiencies?including boxing, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, wrestling and Muay Thai, among others?the UFC sought to discover which martial art was the most effective in a real fight. After a period of political backlash, the UFC gradually underwent reform by embracing stricter rules and achieving sanctioning with State Athletic Commissions.

With a cable television deal and expansion into Canada, Europe and new markets within the United States, the UFC has gained in popularity, along with greater mainstream-media coverage. viewers can access UFC programming on pay-per-view television, Spike in the United States and Canada, on ESPN in the United Kingdom as well as in 33 other countries worldwide.

Mixed martial arts (MMA) is a full contact combat sport that allows a wide variety of fighting techniques, from a mixture of martial arts traditions and non-traditions, to be used in competitions. The rules allow the use of striking and grappling techniques, both while standing and on the ground. Such competitions allow martial artists of different backgrounds to compete.

The roots of mixed martial arts can be traced back to various mixed style contests that took place throughout Europe, Japan and the Pacific Rim during the early 1900s. Modern MMA competition emerged in 1993 with the founding of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Originally organized with the intention of finding the most effective martial arts for real unarmed combat situations, competitors were pitted against one another with minimal rules for safety. Later promoters adopted many additional rules aimed at increasing safety for competitors and to promote mainstream acceptance of the sport. The name mixed martial arts was coined by one of the developers of these rules, Jeff Blatnick, a former Greco-Roman wrestler and Olympic gold medalist. Following these changes, the sport has seen increased popularity with pay per view reach rivaling boxing and professional wrestling.

Pride Fighting Championships (Pride or Pride FC for short) was a mixed martial arts organization based in Japan. Its inaugural event was held at the Tokyo Dome on October 11, 1997. Pride held more than sixty mixed martial arts events. As one of the most popular MMA organizations in the world during its ten years of operation, Pride broadcast to about 40 countries worldwide.What is Pride?, Official Pride site. Last retrieved December 5, 2006 Pride also held the largest live MMA event audience record of over 70,000 people at the Pride and K-1 co-production, Shockwave/Dynamite, held in August 2002, as well as the audience record of over 67,450 people at the Pride Final Conflict 2003.

In March 2007, Dream Stage Entertainment sold Pride to Lorenzo Fertitta and Frank Fertitta III, co-owners of Zuffa, which owns rival promotion the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). While remaining legally separate entities with separate managements, the two promotions were set to cooperate in a manner akin to the AFL-NFL merger. However, such an arrangement did not materialize, and in October 2007, Pride Worldwide's Japanese staff was laid off, marking the end of the organization as an active fight promoter. As a result many of the Pride staff left to form a new organization alongside K-1 parent company Fighting and Entertainment Group. This new organization founded in February 2008 is entitled Dream.