Book Review: The Way of the Fight by Georges St-Pierre


Georges St-Pierre has always been one of my favourite fighters, ever since I first started following MMA. As long as he doesn’t decide to come out of retirement he will always remain one of the greatest fighters in the sport.

I’m not entirely sure what I expected from this book. I didn’t know if it was going to be an autobiography or a training manual. It was really either. There was autobiographical stuff in there, but it wasn’t a story of his life. It wasn’t a training manual either. St-Pierre talked a lot about his training practices and his philosophy on how he trains, but there wasn’t any practical training material in there.

I think I expected the book to be inspiring and motivational. Instead, it was just vaguely interesting. Georges St-Pierre is always very self-effacing and humble and his book was like that as well. Yes, he had to go through some hardships to get where he is, but he doesn’t make a big deal out of it. For him, it’s just what you have to do to be a world champion, and there was never any question that he wasn’t going to be a world champion. Even that he didn’t make a fuss about. He didn’t shout it from the mountaintops, it was just part of who he is. He knew he was going to be a world champion in the way that he knew he has blond hair. It’s nothing special, it’s just the way things are.
That lack of ‘specialness’, or making a big deal about things, kind of made the book a bit dull. It makes sense though. To be a successful and long-standing champion you have to forgo all the fun stuff and just train, which is actually pretty boring. There are references in there to his party days, of nights staying out until morning and all the women and going to training the next day on next to no sleep. I don’t know if this stuff is just glossed over because it’s something he’s not proud of, maybe a little ashamed of, but then, why mention it at all. Perhaps to humanize him.

Georges St-Pierre isn’t a normal person. His drive and focus and will to succeed are phenomenal. I think the reason that this book doesn’t come across as motivating is because Georges never had to cultivate any of that within himself. He can’t teach someone else to be driven and focussed because that’s his natural state and he never had to learn how to be that way, he just was.
Even though I’m pretty well versed in St-Pierre’s fight history, I still got confused in regards to the timeline. He jumped around a lot, from early fights to late fights. Or perhaps it’s because I know his fight history that it bothered me. Maybe to someone who his opponents were just names it wouldn’t matter that he was talking about his preparation for the first Matt Serra fight in one sentence and then his preparation for the Carlos Condit fight the next.  
Perhaps I was also hoping to satisfy the gossip in me. I wanted to hear the truth about some of the more juicy rumours I’d heard, like does he really think he was abducted by aliens? The book steered well clear of anything of this type though. It was all training and mindset.
When it comes down to it Georges is a really a pretty boring guy. He just wants to train. He’s amazing mixed martial artist, I still think he’s one of the greatest ever. He should stick to martial arts though, his writing leaves a lot to be desired.

3 out of 5 stars.
The Way of the Fight meets criteria twelve for the 2018 Read Harder Challenge.
Have you read The Way of the Fight? Did you enjoy it? Let me know in the comments below!

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