On the eve of Canada's most popular-and best-mixed martial artist return to the Octagon, we focus heavily on UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre (Pictures), who defends his belt versus Matt Serra (Pictures) on Saturday.
Georges St. Pierre (Pictures)'s first title defense
This weekend at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas, GSP will take on the winner of the welterweight bracket of The Ultimate Fighter 4, Matt Serra (Pictures), at UFC 69.
I had the opportunity to meet Georges at a seminar he was giving in Truro, Nova Scotia last December. We talked about a few things I'll share with you.
I'm not going to add too much about his training or preparations, as I'm sure by now you've seen the UFC: All Access with Rachelle Leah, and seen with your own eyes what Georges puts himself through.
One thing I can clear up for you however is that GSP has still been going to New York City to train, just not with Matt Serra (Pictures)'s BJJ coach Renzo Gracie (Pictures). George has continued to train his Muay Thai with Kru Phil Nurse at WAT.
On Matt Serra (Pictures): "Once the fight's finished, no matter the result, we're gonna shake hands and be friends, and I will get back there (Renzo's) for training."
I asked Georges about a rumor that he and Serra went out together and had a few drinks.
A huge grin broke across the champ's face and he started to laugh.
"Yeah, me and Matt Serra (Pictures), after the filming of Inside the UFC, the TV show with Joe Rogan, we went out together and we had a great time.
"We were saying to each other, ‘Let's smoke the peace pipe one more time before the war.' After that night we shook hands and we said ‘good Luck' to each other.
"He's a great guy and I really like him, but it's just business. You know, unfortunately I have to fight a guy that I like.
"He's not my friend, because I would never fight a friend, but he's a very good acquaintance and I look forward to becoming friends with him after the fight."
Everybody has a basic philosophy on life: how they see things and why they do what they do.
I mentioned to Georges how stacked the UFC welterweight division is, and asked if he had any favorite fighters that he had his eye on, that he may want to fight one day.
"It's simple," he said, "I want to fight the best. The best of the best, because I don't want to be a paper champion, I want to be a good champion, a real champion, and I just want to give a good show for the fans, you know?"
I've mentioned it before and I'll say it again. Yes, GSP is really as nice and personable in real life as when you see him on TV.
One last thing, at last weekend's ECC 5, I met Georges' kickboxing trainer Victor Vargotski. Yes, he's the former USSR sniper that you saw on GSP's All Access.
"It was a short time to prepare," according to Victor. "We like about eight weeks of camp, but because of his injury we had six, six and a half weeks of preparation. There's a lot of things we have to put in that period of time. But Georges is a very talented athlete. Right now he's about 95 easy, maybe 100 percent ready for the fight.
"Right now we've finished all the sparring, all the conditioning, all the training, and we're basically just left short training to just keep up the timing and speed ability. Put it this way: Georges will come in this fight as good as he fought Matt Hughes (Pictures), maybe even better because right now his career's only starting.
"You can win the title, but you have to earn respect. And to earn respect you have to put a half dozen of those guys in the hospital. After that they're going to respect you. That's the only way."
Scary.
ECC 5 aftermath
This past weekend Extreme Cage Combat put on their fifth successful show in the Maritimes. Here are a few tidbits that expand my event coverage.
ECC President Rob Walker says that the attendance was more than the 4,500 I reported, and was actually pushing towards the 5,000 mark. Pretty darned impressive for any Canadian event, especially one in a city with a population under 400,000.
From the roar of the crowd as he approached the cage, I think most of those 5,000 fans came just to see Mike Skudder (Pictures) compete.
Travis Axworthy (Pictures)'s unblemished success in his three pro fights is starting to get him noticed. Rob Walker told me that he plans on offering Travis the opportunity to vie for the inaugural ECC middleweight belt in the near future.
With permission from Walker, I revealed this news to Axworthy yesterday and he seemed surprised and was extremely happy, then he gave me some news of his own.
Apparently his performance has gotten him noticed by others also. Ali Nestor Charles was at ECC 5 to corner Ricardeau Francois (Pictures) and newly crowned welterweight champion Cory MacDonald (Pictures), and after seeing Axworthy's victory over Shawn Marchand (Pictures), offered him a contract to fight Fritz Paul (Pictures) at Ultimate Generation Combat 19 (UGC) on May 18.
Travis realizes that this will be a big step up for him and told me that he'll "really have to bring it" in order to compete with a fighter of Paul's caliber.
Speaking of Cory MacDonald (Pictures), if you haven't watched his post-fight video interview alongside his ECC 5 opponent Rowan Cunningham (Pictures), you're missing out on some great footage. It's so refreshing to see two guys together that can be genuinely amiable and warm to each other only and hour after beating the crap out of each other.
This was the first time I had met MacDonald and the size of him truly astonished me - massive for 170 pounds. He already has his next fight lined up on the same UGC 19 card as Axworthy and he'll be taking on Sudbury, Ontario's Daniel Grandmaison (Pictures).
Jason MacKay (Pictures) and Matt Dutkoski (Pictures) were a little later than the other fighters to arrive at the venue. They told me that they had gone together to watch the movie 300 to get psyched up for their fights. It must have worked - they both won.
Although it was her MMA debut at ECC 5, Valerie Letourneau (Pictures)'s stoppage of Tannaya Hantelman (Pictures) was so methodical that she looked like she had a half-dozen bouts under her belt.
That technical knockout victory was perhaps foreshadowing, as Letourneau's manager, Stéphane Dubé of KJS Management, revealed that she will compete at TKO 29 on June 1 against an as yet unnamed opponent.
Valerie just made history by competing in the first female MMA match in Nova Scotia, and after the TKO event you can add Quebec to her tally. I wonder if she'll add any other Provinces to her résumé?
Prior to ECC light heavyweight champion Roger Hollett (Pictures)'s bout, I was sitting beside his beautiful sister and girlfriend when the Forum lights dimmed and the big screens flashed to life.
On the screens appeared a video introduction to Hollett that artfully combined highlights of his new career with that of his father Ralph's, who is a former three-time Canadian middleweight boxing champion. It was neat to see Ralph's body from 30 years ago morph into that of his son, today.
If you want to see the promo video that had both girls tearing up and had the crowd roaring approval, you can check it out at www.maxspeed.ca.
Hollett's next scheduled fight will be at MFC 12 "High Stakes" on June 22 against very tough Jason Day. If his fight against Ricardeau Francois (Pictures) was a step up in competition, a fight against Jason Day will be a leap.
Day has three times the experience as Roger and is currently on a five-fight winning streak. His last loss was against MFC light heavyweight champion and recent UFC addition Victor Valimaki (Pictures).
There's a bit of bad blood between these two, as Day has claimed publicly that he'll beat Hollett in less than two minutes. Hollett has, of course, taken exception to this statement, and plans to prove conclusively that he is the real deal.
It's expected that the winner of the Day-Hollett fight will get a crack at Valimaki's MFC belt.
Finally, after Shaun Krysa (Pictures)'s unanimous decision loss to Jason MacKay (Pictures), his manager Chris Boreland filed an appeal with the Nova Scotia Boxing Authority to review the decision.
If you want to know the details you can read my post ECC 5 event coverage, and there will be more on this subject next week.
KOTC "Capital Chaos" notes
Last week's card in Hull, Quebec, looked pretty good all around, but two fighters from that pack are really starting to make strides towards the forefront of Canadian MMA.
After defeating Elmer Waterhen via his favorite submission of armbar at two minutes of the first round, TJ Grant (Pictures)'s tally now stands at an undefeated 6-0. For his success he's been awarded a KOTC welterweight title shot against Rory MacDonald on April 28 in Vernon, B.C.
Keep your eyes peeled to Sherdog.com for a detailed fighter profile on TJ in the next few weeks.
Mark Bocek defeated a very skilled Garett Davis (Pictures), and like Grant it took about a half of one round for him to do it. Going into this fight I gave Bocek the edge, but I've seen Davis fight before so I was surprised to see it end so quickly.
I wrote a fair bit about Bocek in last week's MM-Eh!, but here are a few more quick notes.
In the open division of the 2000 Hawaii state grappling championships, Bocek submitted Wesley "Cabbage" Correira by armbar. The very experienced MMA fighter and UFC veteran weighed in at a hefty 260 pounds, which was about 100 more than Bocek at that time.
"He got on top of me initially, and I thought I was going to tap due to the weight," Bocek said. "But I just held on and was able to bridge. I got the mount and then the armbar."
Bocek also told me that he has some heavy-hitters who help him train, including B.J. Penn (Pictures), Dan Henderson (Pictures), and just recently Matt Lindland (Pictures).
I asked Bocek how he thinks Lindland will do against Fedor Emelianenko (Pictures) in Bodog.
"I think he's going to win," he said. "Nobody ever gives Lindland a chance, but I think if he gets a clinch he'll be able to get him down. He's better on the ground than Fedor. I think he's going to find a way to get on top of him and he'll be able to get a decision."
Now that his KOTC is over, next up for Bocek is the Abu Dhabi Combat Club World Submission Wrestling Championships in Trenton, New Jersey on May 5-6.
Bocek earned first place in the 2006 North American ADCC trials in the welterweight division.
UCW "April Anarchy"
Ultimate Cage Wars is an MMA promotion in Winnipeg, Manitoba, that is run by popular mixed martial artist Krzysztof Soszynski (Pictures). Krzysztof is the current TKO heavyweight champion and is also a member of the IFL's Los Angeles Anacondas.
Official Fight Card:
Pete Brown vs. Josh Gallant
Curtis Demarce vs. Bob Keleman
Todd Wood vs. Rory McDonell
Ryan Boux vs. Gus Guidon
Bill Bolland vs. John Dodson
Brain Maceacern vs. Victor Daychief
Nathan Spence vs. Aaron Basso
Sarah Kaufmann vs. Alexis Davis
Steve Taylor vs. Aaron Gallant
Kevin Manderson (Pictures) vs. Jason Tatlow
Aaron Tregear (Pictures) vs. Graydon Tannas
*James Martinez (Pictures) of Team Tompkins did not get his Medicals submitted in time, so Krzysztof is looking for a replacement to fight Jordan Mein from the Canadian Martial Arts Centre at 155 pounds. I asked Krzysztof what would become of UCW now that he's planning a permanent move to Temecula, Calif. and Dan Henderson (Pictures)'s Team Quest.
"Don't worry; I will be traveling back to Winnipeg to run the show, thanks. I love this sport!"
Seminars and signings
This week it's all GSP, who I guess has too much time on his hands.
Georges "Rush" St. Pierre official autograph signing at Philthy McNasty's in Burlington, Ontario, Canada. The event will run from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 21 and will feature photograph taking, autograph signing, question and answer period and more.
MMA Fight Gear will be there selling your favorite UFC, Punishment & Tapout gear. Wear what the fighters wear. If interested, you can call 905-319-8555 for ticket information (ask for Sean).
Kombat Arts Training Academy in Mississauga, Ontario, continues to hold amazing seminars for their members and others.
Next up is GSP who'll be joining them April 22 for a four and a half hour seminar. Fee will be $100 and space is limited. Register in person at Kombat Arts Training Academy, or online at www.pound4pound.ca.
GSP will then hold a seminar in Richmond, B.C., Canada, May 5 and 6 at Kilgour Elementary School, 8580 Kilgour Place, Richmond B.C. For more information contact Mark Friedman (778) 322-2195 or (778) 228-5875.