Georges St-Pierre

Born on May 19, 1981, in Saint-Isidore, Quebec, Georges St-Pierre is the oldest child and only son of Roland and Pauline St-Pierre. He has two younger sisters, including one named Myriam. Roland worked as a flooring and carpet installer while Pauline was employed at a nursing home.

A French-speaking Canadian, St-Pierre faced a multitude of problems while growing up. The other students at his school would often steal his money and clothes. The bullying got so bad that he decided to learn Kyokushin Karate under his father and later under a Kyokushin Karate master. During his childhood, he was also involved in ice hockey, skating, and several other sports.

After the death of his karate master, St-Pierre took classes in wrestling, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and boxing. He did various odd jobs, including as a bouncer at a Montreal nightclub named Fuzzy Brossard and as a garbage man to support himself and pay his school fees.

Georges St-Pierre became a professional mixed martial artist at the age of 21. By then, he had already earned his black belt in Kyokushin Karate. On January 25, 2002, he had his first match as a professional mixed martial artist against Salvadoran-Canadian fighter Ivan Menjivar at UCC 7: Bad Boyz.

His next bout was for the UCC Welterweight Championship against the defending champion Justin Bruckmann at UCC 10: Battles. St-Pierre won the match in the first round via submission.

On October 11, 2002, St-Pierre successfully defended his title against Travis Galbraith at UCC 11: The Next Level. He would participate in one more match at UCC before leaving the promotion.

He fought Thomas Denny at UCC 12: Adrenaline and won by technical knockout in the second round. Prior to his joining UFC, he had one more match in Quebec. On November 29, 2003, he fought and won against Pete Spratt at the TKO 14: Road Warriors event.

St-Pierre made his UFC debut on January 31, 2004, at UFC 46 against Karo Parisyan and went on to win the match via unanimous decision. His next bout was against Jay Hieron at UFC 48. Dominating his opponent right from the start, St-Pierre won via technical knockout in the first round.

Georges St-Pierre made his acting debut playing a character named after himself in the 2009 action thriller ‘Never Surrender’. He also worked with Hector Echavarria in his action film ‘Hell's Chain’ that year, and in the action drama ‘Death Warrior’, he shared screen space with fellow MMA star Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson.

In 2014, he joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Georges Batroc / The Leaper, a character that has been dubbed by writer Mark Waid as “John Claude Van Damme of the 1960s,” in the 2014 superhero film, ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’.

Interestingly, Van Damme and St-Pierre have been friends for long and have worked together in the 2016 martial arts film ‘Kickboxer: Vengeance’. In 2017, he co-starred with Steven Seagal in the action crime film, ‘Cartels’.