Tag: Matt Serra

UFC 137: Carlos Condit Will Unleash the Finisher in GSP

George St.Pierre is one of the best fighters in MMA today. He has defended his welterweight title six times since taking it back from Matt Serra, and has outclassed all of his opponents to date.However, one thing he has been either unable or unwilling …

George St.Pierre is one of the best fighters in MMA today. He has defended his welterweight title six times since taking it back from Matt Serra, and has outclassed all of his opponents to date.

However, one thing he has been either unable or unwilling to do is finish his opponents.

Some people argue that Matt Serra destroyed GSP’s psyche when he finished him with strikes in their first outing, but I don’t think that’s true. GSP followed that loss by defeating Koscheck, submitting Hughes and dominating Serra en route to a TKO victory.

His first few title defenses also showed his finishing power. While he couldn’t finish Fitch, he rocked him multiple times and left his face a bloody mess. He put a similar beating on Penn, whose corner ended the bout going into the fifth round.

However, as his championship has worn on he has started fighting much more safely. That much is undeniable.  

With each title fight he appears to put less effort into finishing his opponents. Alves has a poor ground game, but GSP didn’t fish for submissions, he just methodically pounded on him.

GSP passed Hardy a few times and went for submissions, but he was largely content with doing average ground-and-pound from Hardy’s guard.

Against Koscheck and Shields he made incredibly little effort to finish. He threw almost exclusively jabs against Koscheck, and wouldn’t pursue Shields on the ground after rocking him.

But he’ll reverse his current trend when he fights Carlos Condit at UFC 137 for a few reasons.

For starters, Condit never stops attacking.

In his losing battle to Jake Shields, he continuously landed blows from the bottom while simultaneously looking for submissions. Shields ultimately got the better of him, but Condit didn’t make it easy.

GSP hasn’t fought someone as active as Condit on the ground. GSP is the higher-ranked and overall better Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner, but it still wouldn’t be wise to flirt with Condit’s guard for five rounds.

Once down, it would be advisable for him to pass with the explosiveness and frequency, and try to land powerful bombs from the top position while fishing for submissions of his own.

On his feet, Condit is extremely aggressive and dynamic. The jab alone won’t be enough to deal with Condit. GSP will have to use his kicks, knees and combinations to punish Condit for leaving himself exposed in his aggressive attack.

GSP always says he’ll go for finishes, and going into his fights I think he means it. But once he gets in the cage he finds it too easy to win without taking risks.

However, Condit isn’t weak anywhere. He won’t put up the lackluster fight Koscheck and Shields put up on their feet or the weak fight that Hardy and Alves had on the ground.  

He’ll push GSP, and GSP will push back, and leave the octagon with his first finish since his second title defense.

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

GSP’s Secret Weapon for Beating Carlos Condit: Dan Hardy… Wait…What?

Georges St-Pierre might want to re-examine his choice of training partners for his upcoming UFC 137 bout with Carlos Condit on October 29. You would think he would be picking the brain of his friend and teammate Rory MacDonald, who was seven seconds away from upsetting the former WEC welterweight champ at UFC 115 before getting TKO’d by “The Natural Born Killer.” Instead, “Rush” is thinking outside the box and has brought in Dan Hardy, who hasn’t won a fight since 2009, to help him prepare for the only guy to have knocked “The Outlaw” out. Makes sense, right?

Georges St-Pierre might want to re-examine his choice of training partners for his upcoming UFC 137 bout with Carlos Condit on October 29. You would think he would be picking the brain of his friend and teammate Rory MacDonald, who was seven seconds away from upsetting the former WEC welterweight champ at UFC 115 before getting TKO’d by “The Natural Born Killer.” Instead, “Rush” is thinking outside the box and has brought in Dan Hardy, who hasn’t won a fight since 2009, to help him prepare for the only guy to have knocked “The Outlaw” out. Makes sense, right?


(“Don’t do this, Georges.”)


(“Or this, Georges.”)


(“But if you do, make sure you don’t do this, Georges.”)

Maybe he’s using some kind of new age reverse psychology or maybe the concept of employing mind games (like when Hardy went to train with Matt Serra for his UFC 111 bout with St-Pierre) is somehow lost in translation with the UFC welterweight champ. Whatever the reason for bringing him into his camp, St-Pierre seems to think it will help, so who are we to judge? We hear Jon Jones is bringing in Brandon Vera to help him get ready for Rashad.

 

 

Matt Serra on PED’s in MMA: “Me and BJ Penn Are in That Small Percentage That Don’t Do Sh*t.”

Matt Serra, and his bucket of rigatoni, make their way to the cage.

Earlier this week UFC fighter Krzysztof Soszynski made the bold statement that the vast majority of MMA fighters—somewhere between 85-96%–are getting some sort of illegal chemical boost in the training room. Yesterday a bigger, more easily-spelled name in the sport spoke out in support of those allegations. In an interview with MMA Weekly, Matt Serra weighed in on what he considers to be a serious problem in the fight game.

“It’s wrong man, it’s really wrong. Let me tell you something. I got to the title without doing anything. I didn’t use anything,” Serra commented. “Me and BJ Penn are in that small percentage that don’t do (expletive). There’s a lot of guys that are considered legends, and they’re doing the GH and doing this and that, and it’s obvious, it’s freaking obvious.”

Matt Serra, and his bucket of rigatoni, make their way to the cage.

Earlier this week UFC fighter Krzysztof Soszynski made the bold statement that the vast majority of MMA fighters—somewhere between 85-96%–are getting some sort of illegal chemical boost in the training room. Yesterday a bigger, more easily-spelled name in the sport spoke out in support of those allegations. In an interview with MMA Weekly, Matt Serra weighed in on what he considers to be a serious problem in the fight game.

“It’s wrong man, it’s really wrong. Let me tell you something. I got to the title without doing anything. I didn’t use anything,” Serra commented. “Me and BJ Penn are in that small percentage that don’t do (expletive). There’s a lot of guys that are considered legends, and they’re doing the GH and doing this and that, and it’s obvious, it’s freaking obvious.”

The past year has proven to be an eye-opener in terms of the blight of performance enhancing drugs in Mixed Martial Arts. Unapproved or improperly applied Testorone Replacement Therapy and fake dongs have brought the problem to light, and while neither Soszynski nor Serra cite any specifics in their findings, they have very little motivation to share an opinion that will undoubtedly prove unpopular with the Zuffa brass. As more fighters come out to address the issue it will be harder to ignore, and with the UFC’s jump to “mainstream” television, they can expect more “mainstream” scrutiny. As it stands now, many MMA-specific journalists are too concerned with being denied behind-the-scenes access to ask the tough questions. Us? We don’t really have those concerns, and it’s doubtful that more seasoned members of the media will be intimidated from covering the subject.

Beyond violating a certain expectation of fair play that we’d all like to believe was held sacred in professional sports, Serra is concerned that the augmented strength and stamina of some fighters could lead to grave injury inside of the cage.

“It’s one thing if you’re fighting for an hour, but you got 15 minutes in there. There’s certain teams out there that look like they got a freaking chemist assigned to them. It’s not that I want to judge anybody, but hey man, I’m fighting these people. Next thing you know you’re in there fighting a guy with unlimited energy that looks like a He-Man figure. I don’t give a (expletive) if it’s happening in baseball, but when a guy can kick your head off, someone can get hurt. There’s a chance for serious bodily harm.”

It’s impossible to predict when the next scandal will unfold, especially since a positive test by an up and comer rarely makes a blip on the news radar. But we know that there will be more fighters getting popped; the only question is what consequences they will face as a result.

Matt Serra States That Only a Small Percentage of Fighters Do Not Use PED’s

Performance enhancing drugs, or PED’s, have become the hot topic of great conversation lately within the mixed martial arts community.Nate Marquardt formally introduced this discussion to the masses following his failed drug test to secure the necessar…

Performance enhancing drugs, or PED’s, have become the hot topic of great conversation lately within the mixed martial arts community.

Nate Marquardt formally introduced this discussion to the masses following his failed drug test to secure the necessary license to compete at the UFC Live on Versus 4 event in Pittsburgh, Pa.

Suspended from his main-event matchup with Rick Story and subsequently released from his contract by UFC President Dana White, Marquardt’s justification for his failed drug test was the result of testosterone replacement therapy prescribed by a physician.

Following the release of Nate Marquardt, “The Great” was chastised by a number of fighters including UFC veteran BJ Penn.

Challenging Marquardt’s integrity, Penn blasted Marquardt on his Twitter account and was very verbal regarding the usage of testosterone replacement therapy in mixed martial arts.

This public scrutiny of Marquardt and the use of PED’s by Penn opened up an outpouring of opinions regarding performance enhancing drugs amongst MMA practitioners.

Most recently, former UFC welterweight champion Matt Serra sounded off on the ever-increasing practice of PED’s in the sport.

In an article released by MMAWeekly.com, Serra stated, “It’s wrong man, it’s really wrong. Let me tell you something. I got to the title without doing anything. I didn’t use anything.”

Further defending his position, Serra went on to state that BJ Penn is also a clean fighter who is against the practice.

“Me and BJ Penn are in that small percentage that don’t do (expletive). There’s a lot of guys that are considered legends, and they’re doing the [H]GH and doing this and that, and it’s obvious, it’s freaking obvious,” Serra adamantly stated.

PED’s are known to provide the user with an unfair advantage. The long-term implications of these drugs are not as well documented as their effects on performance. The inherent danger of their usage can lead to injury.

“There’s certain teams out there that look like they got a freaking chemist assigned to them,” said Serra.

“It’s not that I want to judge anybody, but hey man, I’m fighting these people. Next thing you know you’re in there fighting a guy with unlimited energy that looks like a He-Man figure. I don’t give a (expletive) if it’s happening in baseball, but when a guy can kick your head off, someone can get hurt. There’s a chance for serious bodily harm,” Serra said.

This ever-present practice of utilizing performance enhancing drugs is now becoming more common in mixed martial arts.

Will PED’s taint the landscape of MMA as they have professional baseball? Only time will tell. Until then, the debate rages on as to the credibility of a fighter who utilizes this practice.

I welcome your comments.

“Like” me on Facebook and/or Follow me on Twitter 

Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com

Skippy Asks the Tough Questions at UFC 133

A couple of weeks before UFC 133 in Philadelphia, Dana White made an appearance on Philly’s Preston and Steve show on WMMR to promote the show. Preston and Steve, being the wacky morning radio show duo they are, invited local comic and YouTube star Ed Bassmaster down to meet the Baldfather as one of his many alter-egos. Dana obviously had no idea who this guy was, as he completely bought that Skippy was just your average TUF fan in khakis and comically thick glasses.

So what happens when you ask Dana why he frequently seems upset and angry?

Well, Dana was so amused that he decided to have Ed wander the locker rooms and hallways at the event, doing interviews and trying to put some moves on Chandella. Of course, what he really wanted to do was get Skippy in the same room with Lorenzo Fertitta and sit back and watch the big guy squirm.

A couple of weeks before UFC 133 in Philadelphia, Dana White made an appearance on Philly’s Preston and Steve show on WMMR to promote the show. Preston and Steve, being the wacky morning radio show duo they are, invited local comic and YouTube star Ed Bassmaster down to meet the Baldfather as one of his many alter-egos. Dana obviously had no idea who this guy was, as he completely bought that Skippy was just your average TUF fan in khakis and comically thick glasses.

So what happens when you ask Dana why he frequently seems upset and angry?

Well, Dana was so amused that he decided to have Ed wander the locker rooms and hallways at the event, doing interviews and trying to put some moves on Chandella. Of course, what he really wanted to do was get Skippy in the same room with Lorenzo Fertitta and sit back and watch the big guy squirm.

Props to Dana, Lorenzo, Chandella, and the fighters for being patient with the funny guy.

But hey, if Dana likes comedians, why does he hate us so much? Hey Dana, call us; we’ll punk anybody you want. If all it takes to make Dana laugh is “make Lorenzo uncomfortable”, we should be able to get backstage access for a decade.

Props to MiddleEasy for the tip.

[RX]

Matt Serra Talks About Getting Rid of the ‘Preggo Pounds’

Filed under: , , ,

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — MMA Fighting caught up with former UFC welterweight champion Matt Serra to talk about when he’ll fight next, his student Chris Weidman‘s win at UFC 131, a new addition to his family and much more.

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

Filed under: , , ,

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — MMA Fighting caught up with former UFC welterweight champion Matt Serra to talk about when he’ll fight next, his student Chris Weidman‘s win at UFC 131, a new addition to his family and much more.

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments