Historical Hockey Memorabilia Auction June 2018
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 6/19/2018
Reasserting his thorough dominance and claiming the middleweight title by forcing a distraught Michael Bisping to submit at UFC 217, George St-Pierre thus became the fourth fighter in UFC history to be hailed as a multi-division champion. Born in Saint-Isidore, Québec and starting with Kyokushin karate at age 7, GSP was then participating in wrestling, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and boxing by age 16, turning pro by 21 with a black belt in Kyokushin already in hand. Making his Ultimate Fighting Championship debut at UFC 46 early in 2004 and defeating highly-ranked Karo Parisyan, Rush then accrued additional wins at UFC’s 48, 52, 54, 56 and 58, with this latter victory elevating his status to No. 1 contender for the UFC welterweight title. UFC 65 would feature GSP challenging Matt Hughes for the UFC Welterweight Championship, and with St-Pierre delivering a second-round knockout, avenged his UFC 50 loss to Hughes while claiming his first UFC title!
Ranked as the #1 welterweight in the world for several years by numerous publications, GSP has also been called the top MMA Welterweight of all-time and most accomplished fighter in MMA history by Fight Matrix, with the all-time record for most wins in title bouts with 13. Rogers Sportsnet has also honoured the champion, naming him the Canadian Athlete of the Year for three-consecutive years, from 2008-10. An extremely rare occurrence, we have a UFC Championship belt that’s been attributed to George St-Pierre’s victory at UFC 94: St-Pierre vs Penn 2. One of many belts given by GSP to important individuals he felt had assisted him with each title, our consignor was one of St-Pierre’s first sponsors, with the future champ even training at our consignors gym in the early-2000s. It was early-on in St-Pierre’s career that our consignor recalls receiving this belt.
Produced by Dave Millican and Reggie Parks and weighing-in at approx. 9 lbs, the quality-constructed black leather belt feature’s a gorgeous 9 ½” x 11” tri-layer plate with raised “UFC” letters, with “Ultimate Fighting Championship” below. Encompassed by a dozen large inserted zirconias over the bottom plate, 36 smaller examples have been inserted within the middle plate. Matching dual-layer plates also grace each side – with each sporting 4 inserted zirconias - with a final UFC plate near the clasps. “Crafted by Reggie Parks” has been stamped into one side, with wonderful textured and decorative detailing administered to the leather. In stunning condition with absolutely no damage or obtrusive wear, some of the gold-coloured finish has worn over the plates from handling, with the leather remaining completely supple.
As mentioned, our consignor recalls being gifted this belt by GSP early-on in the fighter’s career, and through research, it’s been attributed to UFC 94. This attribution is based on images from UFC 94 which show the correct width of leather between the mounted center plate and edges, along with the placement of two of the tops of the fastening clasps, with the fourth clasp from the right along the bottom row and second clasp from the right along the top row, both showing placement slightly lower than the remaining clasp tops. We have also taken an image of the central plate from UFC 94 and superimposed it over an image of the plate on the offered belt, with each appearing to line-up perfectly, especially the irregular plate border placement. As an added bonus, we also have a pair of signed Quano fight gloves and BTT shorts, with these also gifted to our consignor by GSP and most likely used in training, along with ticket stubs from UFC 79 and 83, both attended by our consignor. The gloves show great use, with wear to the leather, along with a few small rips over the right hand glove. Each has been signed in silver, and the signatures display well. A letter of provenance will accompany this wonderful championship belt.
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