Tag: Breaking News

GSP: ‘I’m Not a Dad, I’m Not in Rehab and My Father Is Not Dying’

According to UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre, all the rumors out there about him are just that: rumors. 
TMZ confronted GSP at an airport on Wednesday in an attempt to confirm a report they put out on Monday stating that the 170-pound …

According to UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre, all the rumors out there about him are just that: rumors. 

TMZ confronted GSP at an airport on Wednesday in an attempt to confirm a report they put out on Monday stating that the 170-pound kingpin is dealing with an unplanned pregnancy and his father’s terminal illness. 

“I’m not a dad, I’m not in rehab and my father is not dying,” St-Pierre said, later adding that he planned to resume training in Montreal on Monday “for himself.”

He clarified that he indeed is planning some time off from inside the Octagon after his grueling five-round war with Johny Hendricks at UFC 167 on Saturday, a title bout the majority of pundits believe “Rush” lost. 

TMZ has been hot on the Tristar standout’s trail all week, also asking if he had any bad blood against his former manager Shari Spencer, who is suing the champ for what could up end being millions of dollars. 

When asked if he had any hard feelings towards an ex-manager, who wasn’t explicitly named as Spencer by the TMZ reporter, he shook his head no. 

While both the UFC veteran and his sister, Myriam, have denied the allegations reported by TMZ, the controversial media outlet is sticking by their stories and even claiming that the woman pregnant with GSP’s baby lives in Montreal. 

Yesterday, St-Pierre sent out a tweet to his followers to further show that he is happy and in good health, enjoying some well-deserved time off. 

Adding another question mark to an already complicated situation is St-Pierre’s manager, Rodolfo Beaulieu, stating that it’s “possible” his star client’s fight with Hendricks was his last, per MMA Fighting. 

Should that be the case, GSP will eventually be an obvious addition to the UFC’s Hall of Fame, boasting an incredible 20-2 UFC record, including nine consecutive title defenses, the second best in company history behind Anderson Silva (10). 

St-Pierre also avenged his only two career losses to Matt Serra and Matt Hughes (twice). 

Based on how this whole saga is playing out, it looks like fight fans are a ways off from hearing about what GSP’s next move will be. 

 

John Heinis is a Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA Editor for eDraft.com.

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UFC on FOX 10: Heavyweight Clash Between Gabriel Gonzaga, Stipe Miocic Added

The Ultimate Fighting Championship’s annual return to the Chicago area has received a hefty dose of heavyweight action: Stipe Miocic will take on Gabriel Gonzaga in a fight expected to air on the network broadcast.
The news was first reported by the Cl…

The Ultimate Fighting Championship’s annual return to the Chicago area has received a hefty dose of heavyweight action: Stipe Miocic will take on Gabriel Gonzaga in a fight expected to air on the network broadcast.

The news was first reported by the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

The event, which takes place Jan. 25 at the United Center, is headlined by a lightweight fight between former UFC champion Benson Henderson and Josh Thomson. Henderson lost the belt to Anthony Pettis in August. Thomson was scheduled to face Pettis in December, but a knee injury forced the bout’s cancellation.

Pettis is now scheduled to undergo knee surgery in December, and it’s currently unknown when he’ll be able to return to action.

Miocic (10-1, 4-1 UFC) is coming off the biggest win of his career, a dominant decision win over the then-surging Roy “Big Country” Nelson. Miocic’s lone loss in the UFC came at the hands of Stefan Struve in September 2012. He is ranked ninth in the heavyweight division.

Gonzaga (16-7, 11-6 UFC) returned to the UFC in 2012 after a brief retirement, and, outside of a loss to Travis Browne in a fight he took on short notice, Gonzaga has been perfect. He’s riding a two-fight winning streak, with wins over Shawn Jordan and Dave Herman. Gonzaga is unranked in the UFC’s heavyweight division.

The only other fight currently scheduled for UFC on FOX 10 is a featherweight bout between Darren Elkins and Jeremy Stephens. Elkins is 6-1 as a featherweight, with his only loss coming to top contender Chad Mendes, while Stephens is 2-0 since making his featherweight debut.

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Dana White Stands Firm on Comments Made About GSP Post-UFC 167

UFC president Dana White was red-hot last Saturday night.
Not only did the head honcho believe Johny Hendricks had done enough to dethrone long-reigning champion Georges St-Pierre in the main event tilt and was upset about the decision, but b…

UFC president Dana White was red-hot last Saturday night.

Not only did the head honcho believe Johny Hendricks had done enough to dethrone long-reigning champion Georges St-Pierre in the main event tilt and was upset about the decision, but because of GSP’s strange pseudo-retirement talk in his post-fight interview, White was enraged by the time the post-fight press conference rolled around.

White told the media in attendance that St-Pierre’s proposed “time off’ wasn’t going to fly and that the welterweight king not only owed Hendricks an immediate rematch but owed the UFC as well. His comments created a backlash on Twitter and sparked a slew of pointed op-eds throughout the MMA media universe, including a solid offering from Bleacher Report’s Jonathan Snowden.

The UFC figurehead appeared on Wednesday’s edition of UFC Tonight and didn’t back down from his earlier comments when asked about the situation by co-host Chael Sonnen.

“There will be a rematch,” White said. “Georges St-Pierre did not retire on Saturday night. Georges St-Pierre is unhappy with how he handled that on Saturday night. First of all, leading up to the fight, the media were hearing rumors of his retirement and I literally asked Georges if he was retiring. He said,’No way…I’m not retiring. That’s not happening. You’ll see what I’m going to say on Saturday.’ Then he comes out and nobody really understood what he said on Saturday. He’s not retiring. Then what I said…people are coming out and saying, ‘Dana doesn’t care about him.’

“First of all, I’m the guy who talks about Georges St-Pierre all the time. I talk about what an amazing champion he’s been. What an amazing human being he is. How he’s represented the sport, the title, his brand, his country, and the list goes on and on. But he made a big mistake on Saturday night when he went up there and said what he said. He shouldn’t have said it…it didn’t make sense, and it left everybody wondering what was going on, including me. He did not retire and he’s coming back.

“People are saying Georges St-Pierre doesn’t owe you anything and they’re wrong. OK…because here’s the reality. Georges St-Pierre took almost a year-and-a-half off and he’s had two fights since then because he blew his ACL out. When you fight in this sport, there is a small window of opportunity for people, and there is a line of people right now of people who want a shot at that 170-pound title. You can’t just say you’re going to take off and put this on hold because you have personal problems. You can’t do that.”

While White’s comments have undoubtedly caused a stir, he’s a promoter through and through. A rematch between St-Pierre and Hendricks would be a monster of a fight, and with the UFC heading to Dallas in early 2014, that particular fight would be a perfect fit. The company’s biggest draw versus a fighter based out of Texas with a chip on his shoulder as big as the state itself has the makings of a blockbuster if White can put it together.

But therein lies the problem.

Although White is adamant the rematch will happen and is expressing confidence on the matter in his interviews, St-Pierre has stuck by his guns and continued to say he’s walking away from the sport. Ariel Helwan also reported on Wednesday’s episode of UFC Tonight that the French-Canadian’s manager is uncertain whether or not he will return.

White has never been one to bite his tongue, and the reason this situation has created such an uproar has everything to do with the target he’s aiming at. St-Pierre has been one of the UFC’s brightest stars and most popular ambassadors for the better part of the past decade. And while White’s jabs may appear a bit bullish due to the timing of the matter, there is a bit of truth where the welterweight division is concerned.

The UFC 170-pound collective has consistently been one of the promotion’s most competitive divisions and has a deep list of potential title contenders. When St-Pierre went down at the end of 2011, the UFC put an interim title in play, which was decided in a tilt between Nick Diaz and Carlos Condit at UFC 143 in 2012.

“The Natural Born Killer” emerged from the bout victorious and held the interim strap until he faced St-Pierre in a unification bout at UFC 154 in November 2012. St-Pierre outworked Condit to claim the unanimous decision on the judge’s scorecards and resumed his place atop the division.

With his comments post-fight at UFC 167, it appears as if the champion wants to take some time to clear his head, and White is going to have nothing to do with it. There are several high-profile bouts already slated on the docket, not to mention the president deeming Hendricks worthy of an immediate rematch. If the division is to keep moving, there needs to be a champion at the helm.

This is the reason for White saying St-Pierre either needs to retire or get back to work; it will be interesting to see in which direction the pound-for-pound great decides to travel.

 

Duane Finley is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. All quotes are obtained firsthand unless noted otherwise.

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TUF 18: Jessamyn Duke Fighter Blog, Episode 12

Note: All quotes and material were obtained firsthand by Bleacher Report through a one-on-one between Jessamyn Duke and Bleacher Report’s Riley Kontek.
 
This week’s episode has several highlights, most of them involving food. Some good, some…

Note: All quotes and material were obtained firsthand by Bleacher Report through a one-on-one between Jessamyn Duke and Bleacher Report’s Riley Kontek.

 

This week’s episode has several highlights, most of them involving food. Some good, some bad. Let’s start with Armenian barbecue at the house, because for me personally this was one of the best nights of the whole TUF experience for me. Not just because of the amazing food, but because it was actually my birthday!

The coaches had told us that they were gonna do an Armenian barbecue for us from the very beginning of the show, but they were waiting for the right time to do it so that the most people could enjoy it and not be cutting weight. It just so happened that my birthday fell on the perfect day for this. The only people that had fights left were the semifinalists, and even they had a full week before their fights, so timing was perfect. 

They don’t show any of the birthday festivities on the episode, though, which is a real shame! Rakoczy baked me a delicious red velvet cake, Ronda brought over about 15 different types of ice cream and Shayna orchestrated an amazing magic trick for my entertainment. That magic trick actually explains the ridiculous top hat she was wearing, too. She comes out on the back patio after dinner wearing a top hat and a cape and blindfolds me in a chair. After some monologuing about magic, I hear everyone start beat boxing and they take the blindfold off. Shayna drops the curtain blocking the doorway and suddenly confetti explodes everywhere and two male “strippers” that look a whole lot like Anthony and Josh and are wearing nothing but fedora hats, bow ties, and speedos come bursting out of the kitchen and give me a proper birthday lap dance.

It was one of the most hilarious and entertaining things I’ve ever seen. Not only that, it was incredibly thoughtful. Apparently for weeks Shayna had been planning this and ordering in stuff like speedos and recruiting the others to help with the show. In the TUF house there isn’t much to do for entertainment, so the fact that the others went through all that trouble just for a one-minute lap dance that made me laugh on my birthday really meant a lot. Throwing that on top of the absolutely amazing food from the Armenian barbecue and that made for one of the most memorable birthdays I’ve ever had. 

Now that all that’s out of the way, let’s talk about Davey and Anthony’s fight… Or lack thereof.

Anthony had made weight for his fight with Cody exactly one week prior to his fight with Davey. They didn’t show it, but I saw him step on the scale at 136 for that fight. After that weight cut, though, he kind of went crazy with the food. That whole week he kept treating himself and making exceptions. One week was the longest any of us had to prepare for a weight cut. One of the toughest parts of the show was having to always be so close to weight because if you were picked to fight, you only had 24 hours to make weight… And since you had no guarantee you were gonna fight, you had to cut weight just in case. 

So the fact that he had a whole week to prepare really was a luxury, and he had no excuse not to make the weight. He just lost discipline and lost focus during that time, and it cost him the opportunity of a lifetime. It had nothing to do with him not being physically able to cut the weight either. This is why Ronda made the decision to make weight in 24 hours. The editing of the show makes it seem like Dana talked her out of it, but let me tell you what really happened…

Anthony tried to say that it just wasn’t possible for him to cut the weight because he had screwed up on his diet. But here’s the thing, he could have made it. He left the gym the night before at 144, which is well within a range to make the weight. There is a science to cutting weight and lots of things that we as fighters can do to make it easier on ourselves, but the BIGGEST factor in the weight cut is your mental fortitude…and this is what Ronda wanted to prove.

She jumped on the scale after Anthony missed weight and was 152 pounds. Without any sort of prep (diet, water loading, sodium loading/cutting, etc.) jumped in the sauna and was in there for FIVE hours before it was time to go to the coaches challenge. Yes, Ronda Rousey cut weight in the sauna for five hours, went to a rock climbing challenge, won, and then went BACK to the sauna that night and cut some more.

The next day when it was time for Jessica and Raquel to fight, she was at the gym before anyone else arrived and was back in the sauna cutting weight. When the rest of us arrived she was sitting at 136 pounds in the locker room. I watched her warm up Rakoczy for her fight while on weight and then step on the scale in front of Dana and be 135 pounds. She did this to prove a point.

Cutting weight is mental. You can’t use screwing up your diet or your water loading as an excuse. If you miss weight, it’s because you mentally broke. The fact that she pulled this off really showed that Ronda is on another level mentally. It was inspiring and motivating to see this happen in front of me. It made me realize that I never have to be afraid of missing weight… you just have to be mentally strong and never give up. 

Unfortunately, Anthony gave up. He gave up, and he robbed Davey of his chance to earn his place in the finale what he wanted.

Davey trained harder than anyone else on the team and he was so motivated and excited to fight in front of Dana White and put on a show. He just wanted to make everyone proud for all the hard work and time they put into him. This is why he was so upset. Some people may not understand why he was so upset, but as a fighter, I totally understood. You put in all this work for weeks. You cut the weight. You dream about your shot…and then it’s stolen away from you. It’s such a letdown and so discouraging. We dream about that moment when we get to step in the cage to fight, and without that moment, all of the hard work we put in feels wasted. 

So, onto next week and the ladies fight. Jessica vs. Raquel. I remember when Jessica got this fight and I saw that gleam in her eyes and heard the excitement in her voice when she talked about it, and I couldn’t help but get pumped for her. Both fighters were dealing with injuries, which adds some X-factors, but this was absolutely the semifinal fight I was most looking forward to.

Jessica was a teammate and a good friend and I was confident she had the tools to win the fight…but I had also fought Raquel, and I knew fully what she brings into the cage and respected her skills and determination as a fighter. So tune in next week to see how it all unfolds. You don’t want to miss it. 

 

**Tune in next week to hear Jessamyn’s thoughts on the continued tension between coaching staffs, more in-depth stories from the house and her thoughts on the fight between Jessica Rakoczy and Raquel Pennington.

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Dana White Not Backing off GSP Comments Made Post UFC 167

UFC president Dana White was red hot last Saturday night.
Not only did the head honcho believe Johny Hendricks had done enough to dethrone long-reigning champion Georges St-Pierre in the main event tilt and was upset about the decision, but because of …

UFC president Dana White was red hot last Saturday night.

Not only did the head honcho believe Johny Hendricks had done enough to dethrone long-reigning champion Georges St-Pierre in the main event tilt and was upset about the decision, but because of GSP’s strange pseudo-retirement talk in his post-fight interview, White was enraged by the time the post-fight press conference rolled around.

White told the media in attendance that St-Pierre’s proposed “time off’ wasn’t going to fly and that the welterweight king not only owed Hendricks an immediate rematch but owed the UFC as well. His comments created a backlash on Twitter and sparked a slew of pointed op-eds throughout the MMA media universe, including a solid offering from Bleacher Report’s Jonathan Snowden.

The UFC figurehead appeared on Wednesday’s edition of UFC Tonight and didn’t back down from his earlier comments when asked about the situation by co-host Chael Sonnen:

There will be a rematch. Georges St-Pierre did not retire on Saturday night. Georges St-Pierre is unhappy with how he handled that on Saturday night. First of all, leading up to the fight, the media were hearing rumors of his retirement and I literally asked Georges if he was retiring. He said, “No way…I’m not retiring. That’s not happening. You’ll see what I’m going to say on Saturday.” Then he comes out and nobody really understood what he said on Saturday. He’s not retiring. Then what I said…people are coming out and saying, “Dana doesn’t care about him.”

First of all, I’m the guy who talks about Georges St-Pierre all the time. I talk about what an amazing champion he’s been. What an amazing human being he is. How he’s represented the sport, the title, his brand, his country, and the list goes on and on. But he made a big mistake on Saturday night when he went up there and said what he said. He shouldn’t have said it…it didn’t make sense, and it left everybody wondering what was going on, including me. He did not retire and he’s coming back.

People are saying Georges St-Pierre doesn’t owe you anything and they’re wrong. OK…because here’s the reality. Georges St-Pierre took almost a year-and-a-half off and he’s had two fights since then because he blew his ACL out. When you fight in this sport, there is a small window of opportunity for people, and there is a line of people right now of people who want a shot at that 170-pound title. You can’t just say you’re going to take off and put this on hold because you have personal problems. You can’t do that.

 

Duane Finley is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. All quotes are obtained firsthand unless noted otherwise.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com