5 Most personal and intense rivalries in the UFC

#2 Georges St-Pierre vs. Matt Hughes

There comes a time when you need to blow past your idols or let go of the desire for true glory

This is another interesting rivalry since it is a rather respectful one. But here's the catch 22.

It is a tad bit too respectful and in this case, the fighter giving the respect regretted showing such submissive behaviour in the face of an impending fight with a legend. While Hughes was already considered a legend and had a long trail of broken fighters and contenders that he had demolished while defending his Welterweight title, St-Pierre, who would go on to be the best Welterweight of this era, was still climbing up the ranks.

On getting a shot at his own idol in Matt Hughes after stringing together a couple of victories, St-Pierre was overwhelmed with emotion.

He could hardly contain his feelings to the fact that he had moved to such an elite level in the sport so quickly. In only his eighth pro fight as an MMA fighter, he had the chance to be the best in the world.

And this is where the emotional baggage, overwhelming expectations and unexpected adversity came rushing in. St-Pierre did well in the fight up until the moment he made a rather rookie mistake and was trapped in an arm-bar in the first round.

The second time around, he built his momentum up and stayed mentally on track. This led to a beautiful knockout finish for St-Pierre via head kick and punches. St-Pierre had finally slain the toughest dragon he could possibly come across, in his own mind at least. Ironically, he was knocked out in the next bout against Matt Serra and lost his title.

But a returning St-Pierre was always the most dangerous version of himself, as Hughes could testify. St-Pierre then went on to dominate Josh Koscheck and had the opportunity to fight Matt Hughes for the third time.

This time he went on to dominate the fight in every sphere and ended up serving Hughes with an arm-bar, reminiscent of their first fight. The ups and downs that this rivalry went through added that much more drama to the whole sequence of events.