UFC 52: Couture vs. Liddell II Preview
Georges St-Pierre vs. Jason Miller
Apr 13, 2005
ST-PIERRE: Canadian fighter Georges St-Pierre brings an
8-1 record in MMA and is the current TKO Canadian welterweight
champion. The Muay Thai fighter and wrestler trains Brazilian
jiu-jitsu with Renzo Gracie
purple belt Angelo Exarhakos, boxing coach Howard Grant and Muay
Thai coaches Conrad Plad and Victor Vargotzky.
Fighters David Loiseau, Steve Vigneault and others all fight with Georges under TKO Management. St-Pierre was first exposed to martial arts was as a young boy when a confrontation with a larger classmate went poorly and he realized the importance of being able to defend himself.
Prior to his UFC debut, all of his MMA experience had taken place
in Canada at the Universal Combat Challenge, which now operates as
TKO. In his debut at UCC 7 he punished UFC veteran Ivan Menjivar and stopped the
world super lightweight title contender in the first round with
strikes.
Georges returned to UCC 10 to claim the Canadian welterweight championship from Justin Bruckmann via armbar. At UCC 11, Georges defended his title by stopping Travis Galbraith with strikes early in their bout. He actually picked up Galbraith’s head and dropped it on the mat several times, rendering Travis virtually unconscious. At UCC 12, Georges faced KOTC veteran Thomas Denny, controlling the pace with his superior takedowns and ground skills and stopping him in the second round.
At UFC 46 Georges dominated Karo Parisyan, avoiding Parisyan’s submission attempts and controlling the action on the mat. He was even more effective with his punches and elbows in the second round, opening cuts over both eyes and took a unanimous decision victory in his UFC debut. At UFC 48, Georges made short work of wrestler Jay Hieron, pounding him with strikes in the opening round.
Then St-Pierre got his first big-time bout at UFC 50 against Matt Hughes. He fought hard but was submitted in the final seconds of the first round. In January St-Pierre defeated UFC veteran Dave Strasser by submission in less than two minutes at TKO 19 and the impressive win earned him another shot in the Octagon.
MILLER: Brazilian jiu-jitsu stylist Jason Miller is 22-4 in MMA and the current Superbrawl 170-pound world champion. He trains in Atlanta, Georgia at Velocity Kickboxing with Tom Nguyen, Sam Zakula and fighters Jay Hieron and Joe Stevenson. Miller rounds out his ground with Marc Laimon at Laimon’s Cobra Kai jiu-jitsu in Las Vegas.
Despite the gold teeth and “Mayhem” persona, Miller appears to be serious about his fighting career and has already faced many tough challenges in his three years of fighting experience. He lost to Team Quest fighter Chael Sonnen by decision at Rumble on the Reservation 1, in a bout where Sonnen dominated him from bell to bell.
In a major victory, Miller beat PRIDE veteran Denis Kang by rear-choke at Extreme Challenge 50. Recently Jason has made a name for himself in the Superbrawl ring. He began his journey by beating Extreme Challenge 49 tournament winner Jay Buck by decision at Superbrawl 30. Miller beat PRIDE veteran and Hawaiian crowd favorite Egan Inoue by TKO at Superbrawl 32. To send his message home, he submitted Ronald Jhun at Superbrawl 37, winning the title and shocking the Hawaiian faithful.
Worth noting, Miller was originally supposed to fight St-Pierre at UFC 48, but he ran into legal trouble and the bout had to be rescheduled. Now his long-awaited UFC debut has finally arrived.
MY PICK: This is a tough one and could go either way. I like St-Pierre’s previous opponents better to give him the edge but Miller has fought many more times than Georges. Both fighters have wins over UFC veterans on their records but Miller may be better used to a ring (Superbrawl) than a cage (UFC) right now. We know each environment has its challenges. He seems like a very volatile individual too, easily riled and taken off focus. St-Pierre is a naturally gifted athlete and may just surprise us Saturday night. I feel it will be St-Pierre by submission in the second round.
Fighters David Loiseau, Steve Vigneault and others all fight with Georges under TKO Management. St-Pierre was first exposed to martial arts was as a young boy when a confrontation with a larger classmate went poorly and he realized the importance of being able to defend himself.
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Georges returned to UCC 10 to claim the Canadian welterweight championship from Justin Bruckmann via armbar. At UCC 11, Georges defended his title by stopping Travis Galbraith with strikes early in their bout. He actually picked up Galbraith’s head and dropped it on the mat several times, rendering Travis virtually unconscious. At UCC 12, Georges faced KOTC veteran Thomas Denny, controlling the pace with his superior takedowns and ground skills and stopping him in the second round.
The bout that landed St-Pierre on the UFC 46 card for his debut
left Pete Spratt off of it.
From the bell St-Pierre had little trouble bringing Spratt down.
Spratt was caught in a choke and though he stood up, he couldn’t
shake him. Pete fell backwards to the ground tapping ala
Trigg-Hughes.
At UFC 46 Georges dominated Karo Parisyan, avoiding Parisyan’s submission attempts and controlling the action on the mat. He was even more effective with his punches and elbows in the second round, opening cuts over both eyes and took a unanimous decision victory in his UFC debut. At UFC 48, Georges made short work of wrestler Jay Hieron, pounding him with strikes in the opening round.
Then St-Pierre got his first big-time bout at UFC 50 against Matt Hughes. He fought hard but was submitted in the final seconds of the first round. In January St-Pierre defeated UFC veteran Dave Strasser by submission in less than two minutes at TKO 19 and the impressive win earned him another shot in the Octagon.
MILLER: Brazilian jiu-jitsu stylist Jason Miller is 22-4 in MMA and the current Superbrawl 170-pound world champion. He trains in Atlanta, Georgia at Velocity Kickboxing with Tom Nguyen, Sam Zakula and fighters Jay Hieron and Joe Stevenson. Miller rounds out his ground with Marc Laimon at Laimon’s Cobra Kai jiu-jitsu in Las Vegas.
Despite the gold teeth and “Mayhem” persona, Miller appears to be serious about his fighting career and has already faced many tough challenges in his three years of fighting experience. He lost to Team Quest fighter Chael Sonnen by decision at Rumble on the Reservation 1, in a bout where Sonnen dominated him from bell to bell.
In a major victory, Miller beat PRIDE veteran Denis Kang by rear-choke at Extreme Challenge 50. Recently Jason has made a name for himself in the Superbrawl ring. He began his journey by beating Extreme Challenge 49 tournament winner Jay Buck by decision at Superbrawl 30. Miller beat PRIDE veteran and Hawaiian crowd favorite Egan Inoue by TKO at Superbrawl 32. To send his message home, he submitted Ronald Jhun at Superbrawl 37, winning the title and shocking the Hawaiian faithful.
Worth noting, Miller was originally supposed to fight St-Pierre at UFC 48, but he ran into legal trouble and the bout had to be rescheduled. Now his long-awaited UFC debut has finally arrived.
MY PICK: This is a tough one and could go either way. I like St-Pierre’s previous opponents better to give him the edge but Miller has fought many more times than Georges. Both fighters have wins over UFC veterans on their records but Miller may be better used to a ring (Superbrawl) than a cage (UFC) right now. We know each environment has its challenges. He seems like a very volatile individual too, easily riled and taken off focus. St-Pierre is a naturally gifted athlete and may just surprise us Saturday night. I feel it will be St-Pierre by submission in the second round.
