Arguably the most relentless and dynamic fighter in the UFC, it is hard to believe Georges St-Pierre initially took up Kyokushin Karate at the age of six to fend off a bully. Now a fully fledged UFC welterweight champion, St-Pierre's wrestling-for-mixed-martial-arts style has made him almost unstoppable at 170lbs.

Named Fighter of the Year in 2009, St-Pierre's name is often mentioned in the same breath as Anderson Silva when discussions about MMA's best pound-for-pounder arise. Certainly nobody at 170lbs or lower has proved the match of St-Pierre in recent years, with UFC lightweight champion BJ Penn forced to quit after the fourth round of their "super fight" at UFC 94.

St-Pierre does hold the dubious honour of being involved in the biggest shock in UFC history, losing his title to Matt Serra at UFC 69, but he quickly avenged that defeat and has not been beaten since in a seven-fight streak. In fact, St-Pierre has beaten every man he has ever faced, including Matt Hughes who he initially surrendered an armbar loss to at UFC 50, only to beat the former champion at UFC 65 and UFC 79.

Having taking out top contenders Jon Fitch, Thiago Alves, Dan Hardy, Josh Koscheck and Jake Shields, it is widely believed that St-Pierre has cleared out the welterweight division. A future showdown with Anderson Silva would seem inevitable to determine the true pound-for-pound king, although Dana White has raised question marks over whether that fight will ever happen.

Fighting out of Greg Jackson's camp, where "Rush" has improved beyond all recognition, St-Pierre acted as a coach in season 12 of The Ultimate Fighter, culminating in a dominant victory over Koscheck at UFC 124. A sixth consecutive title defence against Shields followed, and a move to middleweight for that super-fight with Silva surely beckons.

Career high
St-Pierre has won the UFC welterweight belt on two occasions, but his complete domination of lightweight champion BJ Penn is currently the defining moment of his career. Not only was St-Pierre able to take Penn down at will, he also passed his opponent's formidable guard at ease to deliver a 20-minute pounding that forced Penn to quit.

Career low
Accusations surrounding that Penn victory, claiming St-Pierre had used grease illegally, put a dampener on the triumph, but his career low must be the shock defeat to Serra - who was a 16/1 underdog.

Quote
"If you want to be treated like a professional athlete, you have to look like a professional athlete. My goal is to be known as the best MMA fighter in history. That is what I'm fighting for."

Trivia
Georges St-Pierre was heading for a degree in administration before he began training MMA full time.