Georges St. Pierre knows a thing or two about brushing off trash talk. The welterweight champion has dealt with his share of public harassment, whether it was back-in-the-day claims that St. Pierre was too mentally weak to ever become champion, or Josh Koscheck trying — and hopelessly failing — to get a rise on The Ultimate Fighter.
So when St. Pierre heard two years of Anderson Silva’s repressed aggression boil over in one spectacular conference call, he was just as surprised as the rest of us. The way “GSP” sees it, the normally reserved middleweight champion just got lured into his opponent’s game, and now there could be dangerous consequences.
“(Chael Sonnen) wants to get into Anderson Silva’s head and he did it,” St. Pierre explained to Canada’s Sportsnet. “That’s what he wants, because when you fight with emotion, you don’t fight smart.
“The crowd, they love it. (Silva’s) going to go crazy but he can make a mistake if you do that. It’s a big mistake. You have to go back to the reason he’s a champion. And the reason he’s a champion is because he fights smart, he’s skilled. More skilled than the other guys… He brings the fight where he is the best. He doesn’t go crazy… That’s what Chael Sonnen wants from him.”
Again, it’s entirely possible “The Spider” was merely playing up the promotional angle. Though the more reports leak out from the situation, the more it seems like Silva was, and still is, genuinely furious that he has to give the man he hates most a second chance to steal his glory.
We’ll have to see. Despite what he says, an angry St. Pierre systematically brutalized Matt Serra and literally broke Koscheck’s face. So there’s definitely something to be said for fighting on emotion. If Silva’s anger manifests itself in a similar fashion, Sonnen could have a long night ahead of himself.
5 MUST-READ STORIES
St. Pierre responds to Silva outburst. UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre weighed-in on Anderson Silva’s surprising trash talk, stating that Chael Sonnen may have finally gotten what he wanted because fighting with emotion isn’t the same as fighting smart.
Sonnen’s mouth in prime form. In advance of his blockbuster rematch against Anderson Silva, UFC middleweight contender Chael Sonnen riffed on everything from injury dropouts to California politics.
Celeste charges dropped. Charges in the widely-publicized domestic violence case of UFC Octagon girl Arianny Celeste were dropped by the Las Vegas District Attorney’s office due to “insufficient evidence.”
White responds to Shamrock. UFC President Dana White fired back after Frank Shamrock called him a “total douchebag,” saying the former champion was “irrelevant” and “hadn’t done anything for the new UFC.”
Tate vs. Kedzie. Recovered from her mangled arm, former Strikeforce women’s bantamweight champ Miesha Tate is slated to return to action against Greg Jackson product Julie “Fireball” Kedzie on August 18, 2012.
MEDIA STEW
The three most telling stats from this clip: 1.) Chael Sonnen landed more significant strikes in round 1 than Anderson Silva had taken in any UFC fight, 2.) Silva absorbed nearly twice as many strikes from Sonnen as he had by all previous 11 opponents combined, 3.) 100% of Sonnen’s WEC and UFC losses have come via submission, and Sonnen has allowed 18 “serious submission attempts,” which is the third most in UFC history.
As someone who’s never seen a single second of Hells Kitchen, if every episode featured Tito Ortiz smirking while an overly-stressed group of chefs teetered on the verge of spontaneous combustion, I’d be totally sold.
(HT: Reddit)
What’s Hendo favorite exercise, you ask? The BIZ-BANG!
(HT: Reddit)
Ian McCall, Joseph Benavidez and Dominick Cruz dressed up like Robin? Brittany Palmer in a skintight catsuit? Fez from That 70’s Show, doing something? Yup, sounds about right.
(HT: Bloody Elbow)
The Silver Spider vs. The American Gangsta, volume 10:
UNEXPECTED VISITOR
@llcoolj stopped by to get a quick workout with Greg before his big show in the 505 tonight! twitter.com/JacksonsMMA/st…
— Jackson’s MMA (@JacksonsMMA) June 30, 2012
WANT TO BE A FIGHTER?
Almost a week & this thing is still swollen & bruised from kicks! twitter.com/RichFranklin/s…
— Rich Franklin (@RichFranklin) June 29, 2012
So here is what they do to drain the ear. Fun 🙂 twitter.com/RichFranklin/s…
— Rich Franklin (@RichFranklin) June 30, 2012
CHARITABLE SONNEN
I got 2 UFC 148 tickets to the first person to donate $1000 to to any of the followingOlympians @Jakeherbert84 @CScott60kg @AirFrayer.
— chael sonnen (@sonnench) July 1, 2012
@Darko_ he sent the 1000 just got it at 1058 pm. Eastern time. Thank again for this@sonnench hope he was the first to get the donation in
— Jake Herbert (@Jakeherbert84) July 2, 2012
@Darko_ Thanks for donating to Jake. I got your tickets. Please send a contact address/number. @Jakeherbert84
— chael sonnen (@sonnench) July 2, 2012
THE NEW LOOK CYBORG
RT @studiomma: Lookin’ hot @criscyborg ! twitter.com/studiomma/stat… 😉
— Cris Cyborg (@criscyborg) July 3, 2012
FIGHT ANNOUNCEMENTS
Announced yesterday (Monday, July 2, 2012):
Strikeforce: Miesha Tate (12-3) vs. Julie Kedzie (16-9) announced for August 18
FANPOST OF THE DAY
Today’s Fanpost of the Day sees Casey.Harts pull out all the stops to dissect the lightweight champ: Analyzing the Ground Game: Ben Henderson the Vicious Gumby
Benson Henderson’s journey to the UFC Lightweight Championship has been characterized by some of the most dynamic grappling exchanges the MMA realm has seen. He may have started as a humble NAIA wrestler at the now defunct Dana College, but with that base Bendo, now a brown belt in Brazillian Jiu Jitsu has gone above and beyond expectation. Taking the fight to the octagon mats against some of the most experienced, and talented grapplers in the Lightweight division. The horror of his opponents is that Bendo is still getting better with each fight. In these fights he has shown an offensive arsenal ranging from voracious ground and pound to lighting fast guillotines along with the demeanor he presents when in situations of ‘duress’ is unique to say the least.
Henderson started his career jumping on the mid west pro MMA circuit, the name of his first event was called Midwest Fighting Championships – Gensis back in 2006. Henderson would garner a record of four wins and one loss before MFC picked him up scoring two more victories. He took one fight in EVO MMA before Zuffa owned WEC signed him and so the story goes.
Benson has shown his ever growing store of ground techniques against opponents who on paper far exceed his accolades. This never stopped Bendo. Through his destruction of renown grapplers like Jim Miller and Mark Bocek, Bendo has shown a will that does not break and beyond all logic recently has yet to be submitted.
In this article we will explore the greatness that is Bendo’s ground game.
Found something perfect for the Morning Report? Just hit me on Twitter @shaunalshatti and we’ll include it in tomorrow’s post.