UFC welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre made his way back into the Octagon Saturday night in his hometown of Montreal after a nineteen month layoff to defeat interim title holder Carlos Condit in the main event of UFC 154. The win was GSP’s seventh straight title defense and his fifth straight victory via unanimous decision. St-Pierre […]
UFC welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre
UFC welterweight champ Georges St-Pierre made his way back into the Octagon Saturday night in his hometown of Montreal after a nineteen month layoff to defeat interim title holder Carlos Condit in the main event of UFC 154.
The win was GSP’s seventh straight title defense and his fifth straight victory via unanimous decision.
St-Pierre has been criticized by many as being a “boring” or a “safe” fighter for not pushing harder to finish opponents inside the cage.
During last nights post-fight press conference, ‘Rush’ told the gathered media that yes he isn’t someone who can easily finish opponents but he lays it all on the line every time he fights.
“This time in the Octagon I had a blast tonight. I was getting hit, it was painful but I had a lot of fun. I love my job. Thanks to everyone for the support.”
“I don’t care what the critics say. I fought, I gave everything I had tonight. I am like I am, I used my body the best that I can. I don’t have the knockout power of a ‘Rampage’ Jackson. I don’t have the athletic ability of a Jon Jones. I don’t have the accuracy of a Anderson Silva. I don’t have the wrestling of a Chael Sonnen.”
“But I use my body, the tools that I have as best as I can and that is why I win in a fight. It is not always about the muscle, the mind, I use the tools as best as I can to win the fight to fight for the fan and put on a good show.”
UFC 154: St-Pierre vs. Condit took place on Nov. 17, 2012 at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
At the end of every Ultimate Fighting Championship event, promotion president Dana White always peaks the interest of media and fans alike with his post event comments, and it was no different following Saturday nights UFC 154 event. At the post fight press conference White offered comments possible future matchups between GSP vs. Anderson Silva, […]
At the end of every Ultimate Fighting Championship event, promotion president Dana White always peaks the interest of media and fans alike with his post event comments, and it was no different following Saturday nights UFC 154 event.
At the post fight press conference White offered comments possible future matchups between GSP vs. Anderson Silva, the poor referring in the bout between Patrick Cote vs. Alessio Sakara, the Nick Ring vs. Constantinos Philippou bout which failed to happen, an interim title defense by Renan Barao and a recently announced heavyweight bout between Alistair Overeem vs. Antonio ‘Bigfoot’ Silva.
On making a Superfight happen between champions Georges St-Pierre vs. Anderson Silva, White feels pretty positive he can make the bout happen and is looking at May for the match.
“I’m going to make the GSP (vs. Anderson Silva) fight.”
“(GSP)’s lumped up, he’s sore. He feels like he just got hit by a bus I’m sure. He hasn’t fought in eighteen months. I’ll make this fight.”
In response to GSP’s ‘no committal’ response to the media about the fight, White felt it was more talk than anything. “This guy isn’t sold, this guy doesn’t seem like he wants to do it, this guy is blah, blah, blah. They will fight and it will probably be in May, or around May. I told you the three options, Toronto, Dallas, Texas or Brazil.”
A middleweight bout between Patrick Cote and Alessio Sakara ended in controversy after Sakara ended things with several hammersfists to the back of the head of Cote in the plain view of referee Dan Miragliotta. The Quebec judges would award the victory to Cote via disqualification.
“Horrible reffing. Stood there and watched, I counted twice. It was between seven and nine illegal punches to the back of the head. It’s a little weird, I think the way they handled it was great for the commission to do that but it probably should have been a ‘No Contest’ is what it should have been. You don’t award the guy the win for being knocked out. It should have been a ‘No Contest.’”
In the post-fight press conference, White did say that he wants the two scheduled for a rematch, which was mentioned by Cote in his post-fight interview following the bout.
On the last minute cancellation of middleweights Nick Ring vs. Constantinos Philippou, after Ring became too ill to fight following the weigh-ins, White told the gathered media that both fighters would receive their show money for the event.
When interest from the media turned to interim bantamweight champ Renan Barao, who is the last current interim champ, White stated that he hoped to have the Brazilian in the cage soon.
“We were talking about Barao defending his title now. So whether he wants to wait or not, we’re going to go back to him soon probably here and have him defend it.”
White also offered up an opponent, naming Michael McDonald (15-1) as that challenger.
Current 135-lbs champion Dominick Cruz is currently out with a bad knee injury and isn’t expected to return till sometime next year.
Despite the fact that heavyweight Alistair Overeem is still under a nine-month suspension handed down by the Nevada State Athletic Commission, White did note that the UFC has received permission to promote a February bout between Overeem vs. Antonio ‘Bigfoot’ Silva for UFC 156.
“We asked the commission, can we start setting up a fight for him, but he’s still got to go before the commission.”
“I think Alistair has been doing the right thing as far as the commission is concerned and doing all the things that he needs to do to get back in their good graces. It’s looking positive and optimistic because he’s been doing what he’s supposed to do.”
No exception will be made though, for UFC welterweight Nick Diaz who is sitting out a twelve-month suspension from the NSAC for a second positive marijuana test.
With virtually all of the focus on the main event of this weekends UFC 154 event, it’s easy to overlook the story behind co-main event welterweights Johny ‘Bigg Rigg’ Hendricks (13-1) and Martin ‘Hitman’ Kampmann (20-5). Both fighters were teammates at one time training together at the Xtreme Couture gym in Las Vegas from 2007 […]
Johny Hendricks
With virtually all of the focus on the main event of this weekends UFC 154 event, it’s easy to overlook the story behind co-main event welterweights Johny ‘Bigg Rigg’ Hendricks (13-1) and Martin ‘Hitman’ Kampmann (20-5).
Both fighters were teammates at one time training together at the Xtreme Couture gym in Las Vegas from 2007 until 2008. Hendricks changed gyms for the Striking Unlimited camp after getting to the point where it appeared as if his teammates had learned all they had wanted from him and “didn’t give back like I thought they would.”
Hendricks is a former Oklahoma State University wrestling All American and was certainly providing his former teammates with some excellent wrestling instruction, in exchange for their striking knowledge.
As ‘Bigg Rigg’ tells it after having trained with Kampmann, he feels the ‘Hitman’ peaked awhile ago while he has continually improved as a mixed martial artist and is looking forward to showing his former teammate what he can do on Nov. 17th.
“I trained with him for about a year and a half,” Hendricks told ESPN.com. “The thing is that about the last half of the year he didn’t want to train with me anymore. That’s why I transferred over to Striking Unlimited.
“Once I got to a point where I could somewhat compete with these guys, they didn’t want to train with me anymore. They wanted to learn from me, learn my wrestling, but once I got to where I could learn from them, to strike with them, they didn’t give back like I thought they would….
“Kampmann’s at his peak,” Hendricks said. “When we trained together, he already knew everything about striking; he was already in the UFC fighting at 185. He’s added a few things, but not much. Once you hit your peak, it’s hard to add new stuff. But he is durable and he is tough.
“I was there with him when he started cutting down to 170; I’ve known this guy for a while. For him to sit there and say that I haven’t developed is just nonsense. I’m not the fighter I was two years ago or a year ago; I’m so much more advanced.”
UFC 154: St-Pierre vs. Condit is scheduled to take place this Saturday (Nov. 17, 2012) at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The two fighters co-headline the pay-per-view event.
This Saturday (Nov. 17, 2012), UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre will make his long awaited return to the Octagon to face interim title holder Carlos Condit. Expected cageside at the Bell Centre in Montreal will be UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva, who some speculated was there to challenge the 170-lbs French Canadian should he win. […]
Anderson Silva eating Burger King – Photo by Amanda Kestelman for GLOBOESPORTE.COM
This Saturday (Nov. 17, 2012), UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre will make his long awaited return to the Octagon to face interim title holder Carlos Condit.
Expected cageside at the Bell Centre in Montreal will be UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva, who some speculated was there to challenge the 170-lbs French Canadian should he win.
Not so says ‘The Spider’ who spoke with to GloboEsporte.com today during a promotional event for his sponsor Burger King.
The middleweight kingpin says he only plans on returning to the Octagon sometime in late 2013 and if the UFC wants to hold an interim title fight, then it’s up to them to decide.
“I will go to Los Angeles and then I will go to Canada for UFC 154. I’m going to stay there to film an action movie that me and Lyoto will participate in [along with Steven Seagal]. But it is not my character to step in there and call somebody out. So I think this won’t happen. I fact I don’t just think, I am sure!” he explains.
Silva has expressed his intention to put on a catchweight bout with St. Pierre and he is not bothered if the Ultimate Fighting Championship decides to promote an interim middleweight title due to the long absence this may cause Anderson from the 185lb game.
“My focus is on my personal projects and on the fight versus Georges St-Pierre. If the UFC wants to make an ínterim bout while I am away, it is up to them. I don’t know if it will have any meaning but they can do whatever they want. I am in a comfort zone, so I am not concerned about it,” he said.
If Silva plans on being absent for up-to-a-year or more if his next fight takes place at a catchweight with Georges St-Pierre or at 205-lbs with Jon Jones, it could be a long time before the fans see the middleweight title defended.
Creating an interim belt will certainly create some excitement within the division as well as with fans, so it’s certainly something I would support.
Chris Weidman versus Luke Rockhold for the interim title?
South Korean fighter Dong-Hyun ‘Stun Gun’ Kim (16-2-1, 1NC) but in a solid performance this past Saturday (Nov. 10, 2012) in Macau, China by winning a unanimous decision over submission ace Paulo Thiago. Kim was so dominant that one judge scored the bout 30-26 for the welterweight, while the other two judges scored it 30-27. […]
Dong Hyun Kim
South Korean fighter Dong-Hyun ‘Stun Gun’ Kim (16-2-1, 1NC) but in a solid performance this past Saturday (Nov. 10, 2012) in Macau, China by winning a unanimous decision over submission ace Paulo Thiago.
Kim was so dominant that one judge scored the bout 30-26 for the welterweight, while the other two judges scored it 30-27.
‘Stun Gun’ credited his dominant win to the fact that he was able to fight in Asia instead of North America, saying that physically it was “night and day” in the way he’s felt.
Often training in South Korea, Kim often finds his fights scheduled half-way across the world and could be the culprit in the disappointing performances of other Asian fighters who come to the USA to fight.
Speaking at the post fight press conference, Kim hoped to continue competing in Asia.
“I would like to continue to fight in Asia. I’d like to be a representative of Asian MMA in the UFC in Asia. The fan reaction, the crowd reaction, as well as not having to deal with the time difference and travel.”
“I felt great.”
“Fighting in Asia as opposed to the USA, in my opinion was a big help. It was night and day as far as my physical and mental condition.”
The victory puts Kim back into the win column following a TKO loss to Demian Maia last July following a muscle spasm at UFC 148. ‘Stun Gun’ is 2-1 in his last three and is 2-2 in his last four.
Former UFC welterweight Anthony ‘Rumble’ Johnson (14-4) earned a highlight knockout victory this weekend in the co-main event of the inaugural World Series of Fighting 1 event, finishing opponent D.J. Linderman who had never been finished before, in the first round. Johnson and Linderman fought at light heavyweight, making it the third straight win for […]
Former UFC welterweight Anthony ‘Rumble’ Johnson (14-4) earned a highlight knockout victory this weekend in the co-main event of the inaugural World Series of Fighting 1 event, finishing opponent D.J. Linderman who had never been finished before, in the first round.
Johnson and Linderman fought at light heavyweight, making it the third straight win for ‘Rumble’ at 205-lbs and it was one of the “Best decisions that I’ve ever made in my life.”
Speaking to Sherdog.com Johnson about the eye poke and the one punch knockout over Linderman as well as his decision to move up in weight permanently.
“I was always upset. I hated everybody if I was dropping to 170 [pounds], especially on weigh-in day,” Johnson told Sherdog.com after his knockout of D.J. Linderman at the World Series of Fighting’s debut event. “Everything happens for a reason. I don’t take back anything that happened in my past, because if it hadn’t happened back then, I wouldn’t be who I am right now. Moving to [light heavyweight] was definitely the best decision that I’ve ever made in my life.”
“I heard D.J.’s corner say, ‘Go get him,’ because they thought it was an opportunity. He just left himself open. I trained to step backward and punch at the same time, kind of like how Chuck Liddell used to do. We train that day in and day out,” said Johnson. “Usually when you knock somebody out, you don’t feel it. You just happen to hit them in the right spot, and that’s exactly what happened. I didn’t think he was going to fall the way he did. I don’t think he’s ever been knocked out or stopped like that. I think I was the first, so I’m proud of myself.”
In a previous interview, Johnson has no immediate plans but would like to step back into the cage as quickly as possible for his next fight.