James Brydon

The first thing Georges St-Pierre said after he was announced the winner following his five-round utter domination of Dan Hardy was that he wasn't satisfied with his performance.

"It's a win but I wasn't very happy with myself," St-Pierre said in the post-fight interview inside the cage.

"I'm sorry, I wanted to finish this fight in a beautiful fashion," he later added.

Am I the only one who thinks it's a little bit ridiculous that he feels the need to apologize? Because what I saw was one of the most technically-impressive performances of neutralizing an opponent I have ever seen.

His approach was intelligent, and I cannot understand why anyone should criticize.

"I had a strategy for that fight," St-Pierre explained. "I wanted to avoid the fight where (he's) the strongest and fight him where he was the weakest, on the ground."

The man nicknamed Rush executed that strategy to perfection, and with barely a second wasted. Here are the numbers that tell the story (the time from the start of each round before he executed his first takedown):

1st round: 22 seconds

2nd round: 1 minute, 14 seconds

3rd round: 13 seconds

4th round: 12 seconds

5th round: 17 seconds

Believe it or not, St-Pierre was patiently waiting for the right opportunity to shoot in for the takedown, it just so happens the opportunity came very early in almost every round.

Anytime Hardy threw an overhead right, St-Pierre immediately ducked and shot in, grabbed a hold of Hardy's right leg and left hip for a double-leg takedown, all in one fluid motion. This was the case in the first, third and fourth rounds.

He also mixed it up. In the second and fifth rounds he utilized the single-leg approach, accomplishing that with equal ease. Each time GSP grabbed a leg, it was no more than a second or two before Hardy was on his back.

His attempts were never stuffed. Overall, St-Pierre was 11-for-11 in takedown tries.

Once they were on the ground it was vintage GSP. Stifling wrestling, grinding ground-and-pound, smooth passing and a couple of wicked arm twists that would have had anyone but a man with The Outlaw's determination desperately tapping out.

Hardy managed to flip St-Pierre onto his back but once.

For an even more in-depth statistical look at Saturday's tour de force by GSP, check out FightMetric.com's analysis.

(St-Pierre had an overall performance rating of 84, while Hardy had a 14.)

Okay, so it may not be the most exciting type of fight. But can one not appreciate its elegance?

It reminds me of the New Jersey Devils in the mid-nineties and their mastery of the neutral-zone trap. It was not pretty but it won championships. Until the rules are changed to deter that kind of approach, how can you ask someone not to do it?

For those who'd prefer constant fireworks there's always the WWE (in fact, Wrestlemania was another option to watch this weekend.)

But one thing you can't deny about MMA is that it is the real deal and so is St-Pierre. He comes to win, at all costs, and he succeeds.

It doesn't get much more impressive than that.

RETIRE THE INTERIM TAG:

It's been said before, and I'll say it again: why does the UFC feel the need to have interim belts? The fans aren't fooled by them, and we know the fighters don't care for them either. Brock Lesnar was blunt (again) telling Shane Carwin the belt he had just won by defeating Frank Mir was "make-believe" and Carwin agreed.

The answer the UFC likes to give is there are certain bouts, such as Mir-Carwin, that ought to be five rounds, since they are contested in lieu of a true championship bout while the actual title-holder has been sidelined due to injury. But in this case, Lesnar is all better and will be ready to fight the winner a mere three or four months from now. Was it really necessary to bring out the interim tag here?

If you really want to make fights that determine the next contender five rounds then simply call them No. 1 contendership bouts and designate those to be five rounds just like championship fights. I'm sure the commissions would be okay with you not actually bringing out a belt afterward.

On the other hand, with the way almost every UFC division is being dominated by its current champion, perhaps they should have interim title bouts and ask each champion to go and do something for a while so they can have some more competitive fights! (GSP, now's your chance to try out for the Olympic wrestling team.)