ok... this is driving me crazy.... i've gotta ask.......
does Warmachine have a tattoo in his left armpit??
hahaha . . . when I was watching the finale my friend noticed this. I'm fairly certain it's a tattoo . . . otherwise warmachine's got a scary fungal infection.
hahaha . . . when I was watching the finale my friend noticed this. I'm fairly certain it's a tattoo . . . otherwise warmachine's got a scary funal infection.
that's what it looks like!! :eek: too bad, too, 'cuz the rest of him is pretty easy on the eyes...
~~*~~ ...i surfaced and all of my being was enlightend... ~~*~~
some interesting notes from training camp in montreal. sounds like georges has been putting in some great work with some excellent training partners.
SPOTLIGHT ON CANADA: GSP'S SUPER CAMP
Saturday, December 22, 2007
by Marco Antico - MMAWeekly.com
ST-PIERRE LOOKING SHARP IN TRAINING
MMAWeekly.com was on location to observe a traditional Friday sparring session at the Tri-Star gym in Montreal, Canada. On hand were Georges St-Pierre, Rashad Evans, Denis Kang, Patrick Cote, Jonathan Goulet, David Loiseau, David Pariseau, Jacob MacDonald, Steve Claveau and more.
Coaches Greg Jackson and Mike Van Arsdale were also there to supervise the proceedings. From an on-lookers vantage point, it seemed clear that Jackson is St-Pierre’s closest advisor these days.
The initial pairings as directed by Coach Jackson included Evans versus St-Pierre and Loiseau versus Kang. The fighters began by working mainly their striking and occasionally shooting in for a takedown attempt. Every five minutes they would take a short rest and find a new partner for the next round.
Of note, not one fighter (including Evans) was able to take down St-Pierre and it definitely wasn’t because of a lack of effort. On the other hand, it looked as though St-Pierre took everyone down almost at will with probably a 95% success ratio.
St-Pierre’s standup also looked crisp. Although he doesn't throw a lot of combinations, the strikes he does throw land clean and often. Perhaps one minor note of criticism is that his feet are not always grounded thus reducing the amount of weight behind his strikes.
There was also some speculation around the gym, although St-Pierre did not confirm this, that he had actually been anticipating the possibility of Serra pulling out of the fight and thus had been going through his regular intensive training rituals for 12 weeks leading up to the fight. This is interesting because his Dec. 29 opponent, Matt Hughes has repeatedly stated that one of the factors he chose to take the fight was that because he felt St-Pierre may not have had sufficient time to prepare. If what St-Pierre’s teammates are saying is true, Hughes may be in for a bit of a surprise.
CATCHING UP WITH DENIS KANG
MMAWeekly.com also caught up with Denis Kang after the sparring session was over. Kang mentioned that if he had a choice, he would be living and training right now with American Top Team in Florida. Unfortunately, due to some visa issues, he may be unable to enter back into the United States for some time. Therefore, he decided to visit with St-Pierre for a few weeks before heading back to Vancouver, British Columbia, where he will remain until his visa issues get sorted out.
He was expecting to fight on the K-1 Dynamite card this New Year’s Eve, but only recently learned that it was not to be. He speculates that his next fight will be on a K-1 Hero’s event scheduled for March.
Asked about the Ultimate Fighting Championship, Kang commented that he and his manager did everything they could to seal a deal with the UFC. They waited on an offer, which they received and were pretty happy with. K-1, however, showed how badly they wanted Kang by tripling the UFC offer. He went back to the UFC to give them an opportunity to match, but it just wasn’t in the cards. Kang is currently on a multiple fight contract, which likely precludes him from fighting in the UFC for at least the next year.
Asked about his thoughts on the upcoming Hughes/St-Pierre fight at UFC 79, Kang responded, “I think Georges is looking really sharp right now. I just don't see what Hughes can do to him this time around. It will probably be a lot like their last fight."
BIG JOHN COMES TO CANADA
Highly regarded MMA referee Big John McCarthy was in attendance for TKO 31 as he and Mauro Ranallo worked the broadcast booth for the Fight Network’s pay-per-view scheduled to air on Canadian television in January.
At the TKO weigh-ins, it was almost comical to see the reaction amongst fans and fighters to McCarthy’s presence. There were more people (including fighters) lined up to talk to him and take a picture with him than any of the athletes actually competing on the TKO card. It was definitely an impressive testament to the respect everyone in the MMA community has for the legendary UFC referee, turned full time broadcaster.
His good friend and fellow referee Yves Lavigne remarked, “You ain’t seen nothing yet! Wait until you get a load of the things Big John has planned. It’s going to be really big and it’s going to be great for the sport!”
“It’s been great being here,” remarked McCarthy. “Everyone seems so nice and I’m really impressed by the TKO event. Merci Beaucoup Montreal!”
I've been thinking the same thing for the past two days...
The GSP beatdown is coming....live on PPV
Progress is not made by everyone joining some new fad,
and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
over specific principles, goals, and policies.
a good article from yahoo sports, leading up to this saturday...
New chapter in St. Pierre-Hughes thriller
By Dave Meltzer, Yahoo! Sports
December 24, 2007
When Matt Hughes was given a series of options over Thanksgiving weekend for his next move after a back injury put Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweight champion Matt Serra on the shelf, he chose the toughest opponent, Georges St. Pierre, who is generally considered the most talented fighter in the world at his weight.
Of course, there was a method to his madness. Hughes, the two-time former champion, figured St. Pierre, who wasn't expected to fight again until April, wouldn't be in top shape. He also pushed for, and got the match as an interim title match on Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas for UFC's final – and arguably biggest – pay-per-view event of 2007. The title stipulation meant five rounds instead of three, where conditioning would play more of a factor.
But in talking with St. Pierre, you get the indication the usually well-calculated Hughes' attempt to play the percentages may not pay off.
"I had the best training camp of my life," said St. Pierre, 26, who tries to regain the title he lost to Serra on April 7 in Houston, in arguably the biggest surprise in a year full of surprises in the UFC. "Even though I took the fight on short notice, I will be the best Georges St. Pierre ever, the sharpest ever and the strongest ever."
St. Pierre trained with the top wrestlers in Canada, who were peaking for their Olympic trials, two championship-level boxers, as well as bringing people like Rashad Evans and trainer Greg Jackson into his hometown of Montreal for the past few weeks.
Hughes figured St. Pierre would have been resting and taking time off from heavy training, but St. Pierre had been working with Evans to get him ready for his Nov. 17 fight with Michael Bisping, and was in the most intense wrestling training of his life.
St. Pierre said in the back of his mind he was thinking Hughes or Serra could get hurt, and he'd be called to step in, and he was actually training for competition. St. Pierre was seriously considering entering the Canadian Olympic wrestling trials, that took place Dec. 13-16 in Etobicoke, Ont.
In his wrestling training, St. Pierre’s partners had been encouraging him to give the Olympics a go, particularly after he outwrestled Josh Koscheck, a former NCAA Division 1 champion, in his last MMA match on Aug. 25 in Las Vegas, winning a decision. St. Pierre has never competed in wrestling, but has used his wrestling to dominate the takedown aspect of the game with strong wrestlers like Koscheck, Sean Sherk and Frank Trigg in UFC competition. He grew up doing Kyokushin karate, and didn't start wrestling until 2001 when he started switching his attention to MMA, which had a strong local promotion, the UCC (now called TKO), which operated out of Montreal.
In his November 18, 2006, title win over Hughes in Sacramento, Calif., Hughes, a two-time All-American wrestler who has used wrestling as his base to be generally considered the best MMA welterweight fighter in history, was unable to take St. Pierre down. Hughes was dominated standing, en route to be being stopped with a head kick at 1:25 of the second round.
"Everyone underestimates my wrestling ability," St. Pierre said. "I'm not saying I would have won (the Olympic trials), but I think I would have done well in it."
In fact, in the buildup for the Koscheck match, people were in disbelief when St. Pierre claimed ahead of time he was the better wrestler of the two and would prove it in the fight. Based not just on credentials, but on his takedown ability shown in prior fights, Koscheck was considered the best wrestler in the UFC. But St. Pierre exploded with a first-round takedown that shocked almost everyone. And it was winning what was essentially a third-round wrestling battle that clinched his winning the decision that put him next in line after Hughes for the shot at Serra's title. When the fight was over, Koscheck, still in disbelief, said the lesson he learned was that he had to work harder on his wrestling.
"I wasn't that surprised," said Hughes about St. Pierre outwrestling Koscheck in that match. "If they were to go on the mat in a wrestling match, Josh would kill him. But this is mixing of sports and Georges does that very well, and Josh doesn't do it as well."
There has been very little bad blood between the two leading up to the fight, a 180-degree contrast to the previously planned Hughes vs. Serra match.
Given Hughes' combative and competitive personality, that's something of a surprise in the third meeting between the two, with each holding a decisive and relatively quick win.
If there was anything Hughes has said that St. Pierre wanted to respond to, it was the statement that Koscheck would kill him in a wrestling match, as he felt Hughes is one of those people not giving his wrestling the credit it deserves. St. Pierre noted he wouldn't be afraid at all to face Koscheck in a pure wrestling match.
Although he had not discussed the idea with UFC President Dana White, St. Pierre envisioned that if he qualified for the Olympic team, he'd have told White how this publicity could help UFC during an Olympic year. But he said his job and primary goal is being a fighter. When he learned of Serra's injury, he immediately contacted UFC, which was actually thinking in a different direction, figuring St. Pierre wouldn't take the fight on short notice with his guaranteed title shot tentatively scheduled for April.
White had been trying to arrange a show at the Bell Centre in Montreal for more than a year, as St. Pierre headlining the first UFC event in Montreal was the perfect scenario for the first live event in Canada. A St. Pierre vs. Hughes rematch in Montreal was the plan for last spring or summer, but St. Pierre's shocking loss to Serra derailed it.
There was even a plan to do a live HBO special in January from Montreal, which would have been a show without St. Pierre, but that fell through when HBO pulled out of negotiations. Now they are hoping for April, but that debut being a huge success rides on St. Pierre winning on Saturday, as well as the timing of Serra's recovery, as the winner of Saturday's fight will face Serra in a match to determine the outright champion.
A small taste of the Montreal show is likely in the cards for Saturday. Even if everything doesn't go as hoped for, St. Pierre's popularity is such that if UFC doesn't come to Montreal, Montreal is expected this week to come to UFC. At his last fight in Las Vegas, it appeared thousands of fans had made the trek, with St. Pierre getting a reception at the same level as Randy Couture, who was the company's most popular American fighter. There were Canadian flags all over the crowd.
A similar scene is expected this week, as the Mandalay Bay Events Center is already sold out, and a closed-circuit broadcast will take place on site at Mandalay Bay to handle the overflow. The gate is expected to approach $4 million, the third biggest in UFC history, with this match and the long-awaited Wanderlei Silva vs. Chuck Liddell match sharing top billing.
Hughes and St. Pierre have been understandably quiet about their strategy. Both claim it will be a different fight than in Sacramento, where Hughes, 43-5, seemed to have no answer for the riddle of what to do with someone who he couldn't trade with, and couldn't take down.
But on paper, if Hughes can't take St. Pierre down, Hughes' chances are limited to landing a big punch, which can happen, but it's a game that greatly favors St. Pierre, or hoping he can win in the later rounds if St. Pierre's conditioning isn't there.
But what St. Pierre will let out is that he's anything but worried about conditioning. He said his goal is to push the pace hard from the start, because he's supremely confident in his ability to go five rounds, and in the later rounds, that will pay off in his favor.
St. Pierre, 14-2, was unbeaten as a 23-year-old when he faced Hughes for the welterweight title on October 22, 2004, in Atlantic City. St. Pierre, in hindsight, admits he was probably beaten before the match started. Hughes was his personal idol, and when in the cage, questioned whether he even belonged in with him. St. Pierre actually got the first takedown, and cut Hughes open above his left eye. The finish saw Hughes on top with ground and pound, and St. Pierre from the bottom went for a Kimura.
Hughes escaped and spun quickly into an armbar. St. Pierre, not realizing the time, tapped. He actually tapped just three-tenths of a second before the horn sounded to end round one. It was in evaluating the fight that St. Pierre realized he not only belonged in the cage with Hughes, but was capable of beating him.
But even with a win, St. Pierre doesn't envision this as their last rodeo.
"Hughes is sharper than ever and better than he's ever been," he said. "We may meet for a fourth or fifth time. I think we'll both be around."
Hughes, now 34, isn't so sure.
"I don't know if I'll continue or not (after a loss)," said Hughes, who is opening up a 13,500-square foot gym, called Hughes Intensive Training, in Granite City, Ill., just outside St. Louis, in a few weeks, although he said the pressure of getting a new business off the ground has not affected his training. "I'm playing it by ear. I've got a 17-month old girl at home and two boys. I want to spend time with them. I've been smart enough with my money that I don't have to fight 20 more fights. I don't know. I don't want to say two big wins will keep me in the sport, or two losses in a row will make me get out of the sport. I'm concentrating on GSP, not thinking about retirement or anything after."
is it time for some boxing day UFC predictions? yes, i think it is!
UFC 79, December 29, 2007 - Mandalay Bay Events Center, Las Vegas, Nevada - PPV
Main Card:
Georges St-Pierre Vs. Matt Hughes III - st-pierre by flying armbar or tko
Wanderlei Silva Vs. Chuck Liddell - liddell by ko
Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou Vs. Lyoto Machida - sokoudjou by tko
Rich Clementi Vs. Melvin Guillard - clementi by submission
Eddie Sanchez Vs. Soa Palalei - palalei by ko
Pre-lims:
James Irvin Vs. Luis Cane - cane by tko
Nate Mohr Vs. Manny Gamburyan - gamburyan by submission
Tony DeSouza Vs. Roan Carneiro - carneiro by decision
Dean Lister Vs. Jordan Radev - lister by submission
Doug Evans Vs. Mark Bocek - bocek by submission
finally...liddell vs. silva. it's about two years too late, but better late than never.
matt serra suffered a back injury which will keep him out for an indefinite amount of time. GSP and hughes will meet for the third time for an interim belt that will be unified when serra is healthy enough to face the winner of this match.
also, the debut of sokoudjou!
UFC 79, December 29, 2007 - Mandalay Bay Events Center, Las Vegas, Nevada - PPV
Main Card:
Georges St-Pierre Vs. Matt Hughes III - Interim WW Championship (GSP!!! )
Wanderlei Silva Vs. Chuck Liddell
Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou Vs. Lyoto Machida
Rich Clementi Vs. Melvin Guillard
Eddie Sanchez Vs. Soa Palalei
Pre-lims:
James Irvin Vs. Luis Cane
Nate Mohr Vs. Manny Gamburyan
Tony DeSouza Vs. Roan Carneiro
Dean Lister Vs. Jordan Radev
Doug Evans Vs. Mark Bocek
(Matt Serra Vs. Matt Hughes cancelled due to Serra injury.)
Hughes over St Pierre (as long as he doesn't try and box him like in the second fight)
Silva over Liddell (chucks done, stick a fork in him)
"Music, for me, was fucking heroin." eV (nothing Ed has said is more true for me personally than this quote)
Hughes over St Pierre (as long as he doesn't try and box him like in the second fight)
Silva over Liddell (chucks done, stick a fork in him)
we shall be at odds once again on this one, beachdweller, my friend.
edit: i meant to say, too, that i wouldn't be surprised if georges comes in initially the way he did against koscheck and others and attempts a takedown on hughes fairly quickly. hughes was able to get up pretty quickly when georges attempted to go for side control after georges took him down in the second fight, so i think georges might have a tough time keeping hughes down if he gets the takedown. i wouldn't be surprised if he tries it if for no other reason than to set a different tone or throw hughes off just a bit. you're right about hughes not trying to stand with him this time. it was pretty clear in the interviews for the countdown show and other interviews that he plans to go back to basics for him and try to put greorges on his back. the way george's takedown defense has looked and progressed over the last couple of years it will be a tough task.
more excitement for me....evan tanner is fighting yushin okami at UFC 82 in march! a great comeback fight for my favourite fighter. a win and he's got himself right in the mix of top contenders right away!
team tanner!
...so i couldn't resist posting a little highlight video someone posted on sherdog before...a little old school footage of evan - the first guy to throw elbows properly on the ground (in my opinion ) and one of the few who can actually do it effectively from the guard...
let's hope we win the book or one of us wins the lottery!
(stupid question . . . . does canada have lottery? I would assume you all do but then again I never really thought about it until now)
Two more days for you guys and three for me until the fights!! I'm going to miss the thread :(!
yes, indeedie we do...and the best part is you don't have to pay a lick of tax on your winnings here! boo ya, as the kids say.
i know! sorry that you're missing it live. i got your message. you'll be missed for sure. :( i might be absent for a bit too if celebrating a GSP victory. last time there were GSP chants on my street...no joke! i think there may be a few ufc fans in the neighbourhood, or they were randomly shouting out letters while they were drunk. it happens. so we will be out in the streets this time...the city won't be able to 'andle our riddum.
weigh ins today at 7 eastern...should be some tension in the air!
does anybody feel like playing a little ufc fantasy league? i just joined up and did my predictions for this card. it's pretty cool...i've never played in a fantasy league before. anyway, they have a scoring system based on picking the winner, method of victory, round, time, etc. i don't think there are any prizes other than maybe a set of "crappy tire"s (a little canadiana in there for ceg ) for the person with the highest point total.
edit: u.s residents get toyo tires. non-u.s residents get equivalent prize determined by zuffa for placing first. 2nd - 20th place finishers get a free ufc 79 t-shirt. high stakes!!!
i think there may be a few ufc fans in the neighbourhood, or they were randomly shouting out letters while they were drunk. it happens. so we will be out in the streets this time...the city won't be able to 'andle our riddum.
i wanna be there!! :(
~~*~~ ...i surfaced and all of my being was enlightend... ~~*~~
i don't think there are any prizes other than maybe a set of "crappy tire"s (a little canadiana in there for ceg ) for the person with the highest point total.
hehehe.... as soon as i'm done here, i'm heading to crappy tire to get an e-test on my car.... i'm a few weeks late in renewing my licsence , and am only a couple of days away from getting pulled over for not having new stickers... bad girl...
ps. if your flying armbar predictions are correct, you'll deserve the set of motomasters, fo shizzle (as the kids say)....
~~*~~ ...i surfaced and all of my being was enlightend... ~~*~~
i went with the tko prediction on there instead, ceg. there was an "other" category for submissions, but no specific category for flying armbars...how odd
the highlights from the press conference yesterday were posted and i was just having a look at them. i have never seen georges look so ready or have such a serious tone to his answers before a fight. he was all business.
GSP is the better wrestler. GSP will dominate (I hope) I got the chance to meet GSP in October in Vegas, and he seemed pretty laid back, but that was before the new fight had been announced. Peace, J
Ignore your rights and they'll go away!
"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to have fun." Benjamin Franklin
www.AllAmericanBiofuels.com
Biodiesel: No War Required!
GSP is the better wrestler. GSP will dominate (I hope) I got the chance to meet GSP in October in Vegas, and he seemed pretty laid back, but that was before the new fight had been announced. Peace, J
cool that you got to meet the man, j.
some of those stats are surprising. 72 strikes thrown by georges in just about 7 minutes in the second match. wow! i knew he was busy, but didn't realize he'd thrown that many. to land 32 to matt's 8 is also impressive.
* i'd like to put an "*" in the article where they talk about the nut shots, though. hughes admitted at the post-fight press conference that the second one didn't hit him in the groin, but rather a nerve in his leg.
Comments
the Lord Nelson had Spike....
il n'ya pas de question!!
ok... this is driving me crazy.... i've gotta ask.......
does Warmachine have a tattoo in his left armpit??
hahaha . . . when I was watching the finale my friend noticed this. I'm fairly certain it's a tattoo . . . otherwise warmachine's got a scary fungal infection.
that's what it looks like!! :eek: too bad, too, 'cuz the rest of him is pretty easy on the eyes...
we're much more liberal here in the east, i guess.
+1 on what releash said about the tattoo. either way, i guess it's new?
http://www.ufc.com/index.cfm?fa=MultiMedia.GalleryImgDetail&gid=308&aid=11613&return=fa%3DMultiMedia%2EGalleryImgList%26gid%3D308
(I was talking about this with a coworker, and he suggested that his armpit tattoo should read "I WIN!"
here's a great one of Matt A trying for an armbar:
http://www.ufc.com/index.cfm?fa=MultiMedia.GalleryImgDetail&gid=308&aid=11636&return=fa%3DMultiMedia%2EGalleryImgList%26gid%3D308
a flying J-rock:
http://www.ufc.com/index.cfm?fa=MultiMedia.GalleryImgDetail&gid=308&aid=11616&return=fa%3DMultiMedia%2EGalleryImgList%26gid%3D308
a Huerta headkick:
http://www.ufc.com/index.cfm?fa=MultiMedia.GalleryImgDetail&gid=308&aid=11602&return=fa%3DMultiMedia%2EGalleryImgList%26gid%3D308
aaaahhh, Huerta's shorts! What a way to begin my vacation.
Thanks Ceg!
happy holidays to each of you, and may visions of huerta's shorts be with you.
one more week until GSP defeats hughes by flying armbar! GSP!
SPOTLIGHT ON CANADA: GSP'S SUPER CAMP
Saturday, December 22, 2007
by Marco Antico - MMAWeekly.com
ST-PIERRE LOOKING SHARP IN TRAINING
MMAWeekly.com was on location to observe a traditional Friday sparring session at the Tri-Star gym in Montreal, Canada. On hand were Georges St-Pierre, Rashad Evans, Denis Kang, Patrick Cote, Jonathan Goulet, David Loiseau, David Pariseau, Jacob MacDonald, Steve Claveau and more.
Coaches Greg Jackson and Mike Van Arsdale were also there to supervise the proceedings. From an on-lookers vantage point, it seemed clear that Jackson is St-Pierre’s closest advisor these days.
The initial pairings as directed by Coach Jackson included Evans versus St-Pierre and Loiseau versus Kang. The fighters began by working mainly their striking and occasionally shooting in for a takedown attempt. Every five minutes they would take a short rest and find a new partner for the next round.
Of note, not one fighter (including Evans) was able to take down St-Pierre and it definitely wasn’t because of a lack of effort. On the other hand, it looked as though St-Pierre took everyone down almost at will with probably a 95% success ratio.
St-Pierre’s standup also looked crisp. Although he doesn't throw a lot of combinations, the strikes he does throw land clean and often. Perhaps one minor note of criticism is that his feet are not always grounded thus reducing the amount of weight behind his strikes.
There was also some speculation around the gym, although St-Pierre did not confirm this, that he had actually been anticipating the possibility of Serra pulling out of the fight and thus had been going through his regular intensive training rituals for 12 weeks leading up to the fight. This is interesting because his Dec. 29 opponent, Matt Hughes has repeatedly stated that one of the factors he chose to take the fight was that because he felt St-Pierre may not have had sufficient time to prepare. If what St-Pierre’s teammates are saying is true, Hughes may be in for a bit of a surprise.
CATCHING UP WITH DENIS KANG
MMAWeekly.com also caught up with Denis Kang after the sparring session was over. Kang mentioned that if he had a choice, he would be living and training right now with American Top Team in Florida. Unfortunately, due to some visa issues, he may be unable to enter back into the United States for some time. Therefore, he decided to visit with St-Pierre for a few weeks before heading back to Vancouver, British Columbia, where he will remain until his visa issues get sorted out.
He was expecting to fight on the K-1 Dynamite card this New Year’s Eve, but only recently learned that it was not to be. He speculates that his next fight will be on a K-1 Hero’s event scheduled for March.
Asked about the Ultimate Fighting Championship, Kang commented that he and his manager did everything they could to seal a deal with the UFC. They waited on an offer, which they received and were pretty happy with. K-1, however, showed how badly they wanted Kang by tripling the UFC offer. He went back to the UFC to give them an opportunity to match, but it just wasn’t in the cards. Kang is currently on a multiple fight contract, which likely precludes him from fighting in the UFC for at least the next year.
Asked about his thoughts on the upcoming Hughes/St-Pierre fight at UFC 79, Kang responded, “I think Georges is looking really sharp right now. I just don't see what Hughes can do to him this time around. It will probably be a lot like their last fight."
BIG JOHN COMES TO CANADA
Highly regarded MMA referee Big John McCarthy was in attendance for TKO 31 as he and Mauro Ranallo worked the broadcast booth for the Fight Network’s pay-per-view scheduled to air on Canadian television in January.
At the TKO weigh-ins, it was almost comical to see the reaction amongst fans and fighters to McCarthy’s presence. There were more people (including fighters) lined up to talk to him and take a picture with him than any of the athletes actually competing on the TKO card. It was definitely an impressive testament to the respect everyone in the MMA community has for the legendary UFC referee, turned full time broadcaster.
His good friend and fellow referee Yves Lavigne remarked, “You ain’t seen nothing yet! Wait until you get a load of the things Big John has planned. It’s going to be really big and it’s going to be great for the sport!”
“It’s been great being here,” remarked McCarthy. “Everyone seems so nice and I’m really impressed by the TKO event. Merci Beaucoup Montreal!”
http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/templates/dailynews.asp?articleid=5326&zoneid=13
GSP!
I've been thinking the same thing for the past two days...
The GSP beatdown is coming....live on PPV
and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
over specific principles, goals, and policies.
http://i36.tinypic.com/66j31x.jpg
(\__/)
( o.O)
(")_(")
darn straight, roland!
GSP with a belt around his waist will be my christmas present for this year!
New chapter in St. Pierre-Hughes thriller
By Dave Meltzer, Yahoo! Sports
December 24, 2007
When Matt Hughes was given a series of options over Thanksgiving weekend for his next move after a back injury put Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweight champion Matt Serra on the shelf, he chose the toughest opponent, Georges St. Pierre, who is generally considered the most talented fighter in the world at his weight.
Of course, there was a method to his madness. Hughes, the two-time former champion, figured St. Pierre, who wasn't expected to fight again until April, wouldn't be in top shape. He also pushed for, and got the match as an interim title match on Saturday night at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas for UFC's final – and arguably biggest – pay-per-view event of 2007. The title stipulation meant five rounds instead of three, where conditioning would play more of a factor.
But in talking with St. Pierre, you get the indication the usually well-calculated Hughes' attempt to play the percentages may not pay off.
"I had the best training camp of my life," said St. Pierre, 26, who tries to regain the title he lost to Serra on April 7 in Houston, in arguably the biggest surprise in a year full of surprises in the UFC. "Even though I took the fight on short notice, I will be the best Georges St. Pierre ever, the sharpest ever and the strongest ever."
St. Pierre trained with the top wrestlers in Canada, who were peaking for their Olympic trials, two championship-level boxers, as well as bringing people like Rashad Evans and trainer Greg Jackson into his hometown of Montreal for the past few weeks.
Hughes figured St. Pierre would have been resting and taking time off from heavy training, but St. Pierre had been working with Evans to get him ready for his Nov. 17 fight with Michael Bisping, and was in the most intense wrestling training of his life.
St. Pierre said in the back of his mind he was thinking Hughes or Serra could get hurt, and he'd be called to step in, and he was actually training for competition. St. Pierre was seriously considering entering the Canadian Olympic wrestling trials, that took place Dec. 13-16 in Etobicoke, Ont.
In his wrestling training, St. Pierre’s partners had been encouraging him to give the Olympics a go, particularly after he outwrestled Josh Koscheck, a former NCAA Division 1 champion, in his last MMA match on Aug. 25 in Las Vegas, winning a decision. St. Pierre has never competed in wrestling, but has used his wrestling to dominate the takedown aspect of the game with strong wrestlers like Koscheck, Sean Sherk and Frank Trigg in UFC competition. He grew up doing Kyokushin karate, and didn't start wrestling until 2001 when he started switching his attention to MMA, which had a strong local promotion, the UCC (now called TKO), which operated out of Montreal.
In his November 18, 2006, title win over Hughes in Sacramento, Calif., Hughes, a two-time All-American wrestler who has used wrestling as his base to be generally considered the best MMA welterweight fighter in history, was unable to take St. Pierre down. Hughes was dominated standing, en route to be being stopped with a head kick at 1:25 of the second round.
"Everyone underestimates my wrestling ability," St. Pierre said. "I'm not saying I would have won (the Olympic trials), but I think I would have done well in it."
In fact, in the buildup for the Koscheck match, people were in disbelief when St. Pierre claimed ahead of time he was the better wrestler of the two and would prove it in the fight. Based not just on credentials, but on his takedown ability shown in prior fights, Koscheck was considered the best wrestler in the UFC. But St. Pierre exploded with a first-round takedown that shocked almost everyone. And it was winning what was essentially a third-round wrestling battle that clinched his winning the decision that put him next in line after Hughes for the shot at Serra's title. When the fight was over, Koscheck, still in disbelief, said the lesson he learned was that he had to work harder on his wrestling.
"I wasn't that surprised," said Hughes about St. Pierre outwrestling Koscheck in that match. "If they were to go on the mat in a wrestling match, Josh would kill him. But this is mixing of sports and Georges does that very well, and Josh doesn't do it as well."
There has been very little bad blood between the two leading up to the fight, a 180-degree contrast to the previously planned Hughes vs. Serra match.
Given Hughes' combative and competitive personality, that's something of a surprise in the third meeting between the two, with each holding a decisive and relatively quick win.
If there was anything Hughes has said that St. Pierre wanted to respond to, it was the statement that Koscheck would kill him in a wrestling match, as he felt Hughes is one of those people not giving his wrestling the credit it deserves. St. Pierre noted he wouldn't be afraid at all to face Koscheck in a pure wrestling match.
Although he had not discussed the idea with UFC President Dana White, St. Pierre envisioned that if he qualified for the Olympic team, he'd have told White how this publicity could help UFC during an Olympic year. But he said his job and primary goal is being a fighter. When he learned of Serra's injury, he immediately contacted UFC, which was actually thinking in a different direction, figuring St. Pierre wouldn't take the fight on short notice with his guaranteed title shot tentatively scheduled for April.
White had been trying to arrange a show at the Bell Centre in Montreal for more than a year, as St. Pierre headlining the first UFC event in Montreal was the perfect scenario for the first live event in Canada. A St. Pierre vs. Hughes rematch in Montreal was the plan for last spring or summer, but St. Pierre's shocking loss to Serra derailed it.
There was even a plan to do a live HBO special in January from Montreal, which would have been a show without St. Pierre, but that fell through when HBO pulled out of negotiations. Now they are hoping for April, but that debut being a huge success rides on St. Pierre winning on Saturday, as well as the timing of Serra's recovery, as the winner of Saturday's fight will face Serra in a match to determine the outright champion.
A small taste of the Montreal show is likely in the cards for Saturday. Even if everything doesn't go as hoped for, St. Pierre's popularity is such that if UFC doesn't come to Montreal, Montreal is expected this week to come to UFC. At his last fight in Las Vegas, it appeared thousands of fans had made the trek, with St. Pierre getting a reception at the same level as Randy Couture, who was the company's most popular American fighter. There were Canadian flags all over the crowd.
A similar scene is expected this week, as the Mandalay Bay Events Center is already sold out, and a closed-circuit broadcast will take place on site at Mandalay Bay to handle the overflow. The gate is expected to approach $4 million, the third biggest in UFC history, with this match and the long-awaited Wanderlei Silva vs. Chuck Liddell match sharing top billing.
Hughes and St. Pierre have been understandably quiet about their strategy. Both claim it will be a different fight than in Sacramento, where Hughes, 43-5, seemed to have no answer for the riddle of what to do with someone who he couldn't trade with, and couldn't take down.
But on paper, if Hughes can't take St. Pierre down, Hughes' chances are limited to landing a big punch, which can happen, but it's a game that greatly favors St. Pierre, or hoping he can win in the later rounds if St. Pierre's conditioning isn't there.
But what St. Pierre will let out is that he's anything but worried about conditioning. He said his goal is to push the pace hard from the start, because he's supremely confident in his ability to go five rounds, and in the later rounds, that will pay off in his favor.
St. Pierre, 14-2, was unbeaten as a 23-year-old when he faced Hughes for the welterweight title on October 22, 2004, in Atlantic City. St. Pierre, in hindsight, admits he was probably beaten before the match started. Hughes was his personal idol, and when in the cage, questioned whether he even belonged in with him. St. Pierre actually got the first takedown, and cut Hughes open above his left eye. The finish saw Hughes on top with ground and pound, and St. Pierre from the bottom went for a Kimura.
Hughes escaped and spun quickly into an armbar. St. Pierre, not realizing the time, tapped. He actually tapped just three-tenths of a second before the horn sounded to end round one. It was in evaluating the fight that St. Pierre realized he not only belonged in the cage with Hughes, but was capable of beating him.
But even with a win, St. Pierre doesn't envision this as their last rodeo.
"Hughes is sharper than ever and better than he's ever been," he said. "We may meet for a fourth or fifth time. I think we'll both be around."
Hughes, now 34, isn't so sure.
"I don't know if I'll continue or not (after a loss)," said Hughes, who is opening up a 13,500-square foot gym, called Hughes Intensive Training, in Granite City, Ill., just outside St. Louis, in a few weeks, although he said the pressure of getting a new business off the ground has not affected his training. "I'm playing it by ear. I've got a 17-month old girl at home and two boys. I want to spend time with them. I've been smart enough with my money that I don't have to fight 20 more fights. I don't know. I don't want to say two big wins will keep me in the sport, or two losses in a row will make me get out of the sport. I'm concentrating on GSP, not thinking about retirement or anything after."
http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/news;_ylt=At.voT6p1hCxpigNHDdQcVCMFI14?slug=dm-gsphughes122407&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
UFC 79, December 29, 2007 - Mandalay Bay Events Center, Las Vegas, Nevada - PPV
Main Card:
Georges St-Pierre Vs. Matt Hughes III - st-pierre by flying armbar or tko
Wanderlei Silva Vs. Chuck Liddell - liddell by ko
Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou Vs. Lyoto Machida - sokoudjou by tko
Rich Clementi Vs. Melvin Guillard - clementi by submission
Eddie Sanchez Vs. Soa Palalei - palalei by ko
Pre-lims:
James Irvin Vs. Luis Cane - cane by tko
Nate Mohr Vs. Manny Gamburyan - gamburyan by submission
Tony DeSouza Vs. Roan Carneiro - carneiro by decision
Dean Lister Vs. Jordan Radev - lister by submission
Doug Evans Vs. Mark Bocek - bocek by submission
Hughes over St Pierre (as long as he doesn't try and box him like in the second fight)
Silva over Liddell (chucks done, stick a fork in him)
Stop by:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=14678777351&ref=mf
oooooooh! contravertial picks....
it's gonna get exciting in here on Saturday!! only 3 more days!
VAS-Y GSP!
http://www.ufc.com/index.cfm?fa=misc.book120707
it's only open to US residents though.... :(
Releash.... you gotta enter for us, and if we win, we could sell the book to fund a trip for you, me, and mookie to go to Vegas!!
I'm on it Ceg! Selling the book and hitting up Vegas sounds like a great plan.
US residents only? :( that's kinda bogus given the number of canadian fighters and fans. I'll get some friends to enter for us too.
VAS Y GSP!!!!!!!!
we shall be at odds once again on this one, beachdweller, my friend.
edit: i meant to say, too, that i wouldn't be surprised if georges comes in initially the way he did against koscheck and others and attempts a takedown on hughes fairly quickly. hughes was able to get up pretty quickly when georges attempted to go for side control after georges took him down in the second fight, so i think georges might have a tough time keeping hughes down if he gets the takedown. i wouldn't be surprised if he tries it if for no other reason than to set a different tone or throw hughes off just a bit. you're right about hughes not trying to stand with him this time. it was pretty clear in the interviews for the countdown show and other interviews that he plans to go back to basics for him and try to put greorges on his back. the way george's takedown defense has looked and progressed over the last couple of years it will be a tough task.
team tanner!
...so i couldn't resist posting a little highlight video someone posted on sherdog before...a little old school footage of evan - the first guy to throw elbows properly on the ground (in my opinion
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xmoil_evan-tanner_sport
i'm down with the plan!
one more day!...well two, pretty much...saturday night can't get here soon enough, ceg!
let's hope we win the book or one of us wins the lottery!
(stupid question . . . . does canada have lottery? I would assume you all do but then again I never really thought about it until now)
Two more days for you guys and three for me until the fights!! I'm going to miss the thread :(!
yes, indeedie we do...and the best part is you don't have to pay a lick of tax on your winnings here! boo ya, as the kids say.
i know! sorry that you're missing it live. i got your message. you'll be missed for sure. :( i might be absent for a bit too if celebrating a GSP victory. last time there were GSP chants on my street...no joke!
does anybody feel like playing a little ufc fantasy league? i just joined up and did my predictions for this card. it's pretty cool...i've never played in a fantasy league before. anyway, they have a scoring system based on picking the winner, method of victory, round, time, etc. i don't think there are any prizes other than maybe a set of "crappy tire"s (a little canadiana in there for ceg
anyway, if anyone's interested...
http://fantasy1.ufc.com/index.cfm?fa=fantasy.home
edit: u.s residents get toyo tires. non-u.s residents get equivalent prize determined by zuffa for placing first.
i wanna be there!!
ack!! i can't believe you're not going to be here!! we'll miss you... travel safely, and come gush about the show ASAP!!
hehehe.... as soon as i'm done here, i'm heading to crappy tire to get an e-test on my car.... i'm a few weeks late in renewing my licsence
ps. if your flying armbar predictions are correct, you'll deserve the set of motomasters, fo shizzle (as the kids say)....
the highlights from the press conference yesterday were posted and i was just having a look at them. i have never seen georges look so ready or have such a serious tone to his answers before a fight. he was all business.
oh, and you are a rebel!
GSP is the better wrestler. GSP will dominate (I hope) I got the chance to meet GSP in October in Vegas, and he seemed pretty laid back, but that was before the new fight had been announced. Peace, J
"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to have fun." Benjamin Franklin
www.AllAmericanBiofuels.com
Biodiesel: No War Required!
cool that you got to meet the man, j.
some of those stats are surprising. 72 strikes thrown by georges in just about 7 minutes in the second match. wow! i knew he was busy, but didn't realize he'd thrown that many. to land 32 to matt's 8 is also impressive.
* i'd like to put an "*" in the article where they talk about the nut shots, though. hughes admitted at the post-fight press conference that the second one didn't hit him in the groin, but rather a nerve in his leg.