SportsHockeyMaple LeafsMMAUFC

Georges St-Pierre gives pointers to Toronto Maple Leafs fighter after seeing his Superman punch

Adam Laskaris
Adam Laskaris
|
Mar 11 2025, 6:11 pm
Georges St-Pierre gives pointers to Toronto Maple Leafs fighter after seeing his Superman punch
Joe Camporeale/USA TODAY Sports

While Mitch Marner scored the winner in the shootout last night to give the Toronto Maple Leafs their first-ever victory in Utah, he wasn’t the player stealing the headlines.

That honour goes to Leafs defenceman Simon Benoit, who created one of the coolest pictures of the season despite losing his fight against Michael Kesselring.

Squaring up against the Utah defender in the second period with Toronto up 3-0, Benoit left his feet and attempted an MMA-style “Superman punch,” though it didn’t quite connect, and he ended up losing the brief bout.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Offside (@offside)


While he didn’t land the strike, on Tuesday, the fight drew the attention of former UFC champion and Montreal native Georges St-Pierre.

“He missed the target because he telegraphed too much, but the picture is awesome,” St-Pierre wrote on X.

ā€œI think just in the moment I felt I had an opening there, and I just took it,ā€ Benoit said last night of his thought process behind the move.

“I donā€™t know if Iā€™ve ever seen that. Maybe years ago, but we actually got a great picture of it in the room. It was pretty cool,” Leafs coach Craig Berube added.

Like St-Pierre, Benoit himself is also from Quebec, having been born in Laval. Given that he’d be the prime age demographic at 26 to have enjoyed St-Pierre’s reign as a child, we can imagine he’d probably get quite the buzz from seeing a sports icon recognize him like that.

With the Leafs travelling home this week ahead of a Thursday matchup against the Florida Panthers, we probably won’t hear a response in the media from Benoit anytime soon. But perhaps in the offseason, St-Pierre and Benoit can link up for a training session and give him a few in-person tips for the next time he tries some MMA on the ice.

ADVERTISEMENT