Georges St-Pierre: "Anderson has no holes in his game."

Georges St-Pierre: "Anderson has no holes in his game."

Georges St-Pierre: "Anderson has no holes in his game."

by Tim Groves on April 11, 2011

“As a MMA fan, I wanted to fight him. I believe he’s the best pound for pound fighter of the world, but like I said: no one is unbeatable, If I find a way to defeat him, I’d set the right strategy to do it” - Georges St-Pierre

UFC welterweight champion recently spoke to TATAME about the potential superfight with Anderson Silva.

Fight fans have been clamoring for a fight between the top two pound-for-pound fighters in the world. UFC President Dana White even hinted at the possibility of the two fighting if they both dispatched of their next challengers.

Silva defeated Vitor Belfort at UFC 126 while St-Pierre is patiently waiting to step into the cage with Jake Shields at UFC 129. However, thoughts on the superfight have recently cooled as Silva is being rumored to take on Yushin Okami at UFC Rio.

Regardless of whether the two ever meet, St-Pierre still had some high praise for the middleweight champion.

When asked about his supposed wrestling advantage, the Canadian responded “Anderson has no holes in his game.”

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M-1 Global Confirms Fedor Has Agreed to Fight Henderson

M-1 Global Confirms Fedor Has Agreed to Fight Henderson

As we predicted, Saturday’s Strikeforce delivered plenty of ‘holy eff’ moments, highlighted of course by the Nick Diaz’s thrilling win over Paul Daley and Gilbert Melendez’s dispatching of Tatsuya Kawajiri. Shinya Aoki fans also got to celebrate his ‘that can’t be good for anybody’ neck crank win over Lyle Beerbohm, which obviously came at a good time for Japanese MMA.
One of the interesting storylines to emerge out of the card is that it’s looking more and more like Fedor Emelianenko will throw down with Dan Henderson sometime this summer. Strikeforce boss man Scott Coker has confirmed that negotiations for the fight are underway, and in a report today from ESPN U.K., M-1 Global’s Appy Echteld reported that Fedor has “agreed. He’s ready to fight.” It remains somewhat unclear as to what weight the bout will take place at, as Coker said Fedor and his crew aren’t down with the Russian trimming to 205, while Echteld maintains that “The Last Emperor” is getting back to his old form.

”With his progress from training, I can only think he’ll be back the way he was. If he doesn’t win, he’ll make his own decisions like he does now. If he stops, he stops. But if he wins, I think he’ll continue fighting.”

Obviously Fedor’s next fight was going to be pivotal for him, regardless of who he fought, but wow…Hendo huh? Looks like no one’s doing Fedor any favors opponent wise.

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Was the Diaz Daley fight a good stoppage, rewatch it but replace Daley with GSP

Was the Diaz Daley fight a good stoppage, rewatch it but replace Daley with GSP

Now, this isn't going to be easy for everybody cause we all hate Daley so much but please, please try to do it. Replace Daley with GSP, it will take a minutes but really, really try to do it. Take all that Daley hate out of your mind and replace it with that GSP love everybody has. Don't just vote on what you watched earlier, re-watch the fight with the GSP love versus the Daley hate strong in your heart. Now, if you are one of the 3 guys out there that doesn't love GSP, just pick your favorite fighter and do it with him instead. Remember, this is a title fight and only 3 seconds left in the round.

About 1 minute left in the fight, look how bad GSP hurt Diaz and look how little Diaz was defending himself. Rewind if you have to but give it a good look. Remember, remove the hate, bring in the logic. And at 11 seconds left, GSP wasn't even dropped by a punch, more of being tired.

---------- Post added at 11:24 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:05 PM ----------

Here's what they are saying on our twitter right now.

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Chael Sonnen Has Told Too Many Lies for the NSAC

Chael Sonnen Has Told Too Many Lies for the NSAC

It looks like Chael Sonnen's lies have caught up with him again. After failing a drug test after UFC 117 he was suspended by the California Athletic Commission. He managed to get the suspension reduced by appearing before the CSAC, but in doing so he made some claims about having had conversations with Keith Kizer, the Executive Director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission. Those claims were false.

He also pled guilty to a felony on a federal money laundering charge and has been "suspended" by the UFC while he awaits sentencing on April 8th.

The UFC was exploring the possibility of Sonnen coming back to coach The Ultimate Fighter opposite the similarly-if-not-equally-controversial Michael Bisping. I wrote about the difficulties that created for NSAC ED Kizer the other day. Basically the whole project hinged on Sonnen being able to convince Kizer that he should be willing to license a man who had perjured himself under oath during his CSAC hearing and done it by invoking Kizer's name as initially reported by Cage Side Seats.

We live in an era of captured government when everyone expects government regulators to do the bidding of large corporations, but Sonnen has apparently gone a bridge too far for Kizer who is now commenting on the outcome of the meeting between he, Sonnen and UFC officials three weeks ago.

From MMA Junkie:

"With his explanations, I don't know how productive of a meeting it was. I really did expect a much more constructive meeting out of that. But it just wasn't there. I think Zuffa tried; I know we tried. I put the blame completely on Mr. Sonnen."
...
"His point was, 'Well, you and I have never talked before right now, but I don't think I lied,'" Kizer said.

"Then he gave some very strange story and claimed, 'My manager and you talked about therapeutic exemptions, and therefore, I just used the wrong word. I should have said 'my' instead of 'I.' As in 'my manager' instead of 'I.'

"I was very straight with him, saying, 'That's a ridiculous explanation.'"

Kizer also said that Sonnen would have to appear before a full hearing of the NSAC to get a second's license (required to coach TUF) and that he would have to formally address his statements to the CSAC, his felony conviction and his accusations against Referee Josh Rosenthal after his loss to Paulo Filho at WEC 31.

Will Cooling at Inside Fights had some commentary on the prospect of a full hearing for Sonnen:

Such a thorough investigation into whether Sonnen is a man with the character worthy of fighting in the Octagon is long overdue. Repeatedly over the past twelve months and before he has simply lied, lied, lied. Alarmingly that was clear in the build up to the his match with Anderson Silva at UFC 117, with (to pick just two examples) Sonnen was caught lying about not having a twitter account and accusing Lance Armstrong of taking performance enhancing drugs. And yet this pathological pattern of deceit was ignored by the MMA media who were too busy falling in love with his wisecracks and aggressive attitude.

Hopefully following Kizer leads MMA journalists will now start asking the tough questions they should have been asking from the start. Not least there should be a proper look into Sonnen's testimony back on December 2nd. We need to know whether the evidence provided by his doctor was credible given that that the doctor was a local practitioner who seemingly lacked basic knowledge of the side effects of prolonged anabolic steriod use. We need to know why an Olympic level athlete believes its appropriate to secretly inject himself with testosterone in fearsomely large doses. Above all we need to know how a person that since childhood was should have been signficiantly weaker than the average male due to delayed puberty caused by Hypogonadism, had such a glittering athletic career.

There are so many questions that have to be asked as one after another of Chael Sonnen's lies are exposed. Make no mistake about it, as his lies unravel Sonnen is fighting for his very career. And the fact that these lies have been so self defeating shines a light onto Sonnen's character. To put it simply he lies not because its in his interests but because its in his nature.

Kaleb Kelchner at Cage Side Seats added:

Why is it that every guy I know accused of money laundering never lies, just misspeaks? I have no qualms with Sonnen being refused a spot as coach on The Ultimate Fighter, even though it may just be a big talker like him that would spark some interest in the show once again. It would also set a poor example for the UFC to place two fighters who are currently under fire for recent actions in such an esteemed position as coach on TUF. I wouldn't be surprised to see Bisping included still, well, so long as they can find a coach who'd be willing to antagonize him enough to force him to play ball. I'm quite certain though, if Sonnen had come across humbled, and apologetic, we'd likely see him paired with the Brit on season 14 of TUF.

Mayhem Miller has already volunteered to fill Sonnen's shoes, but I doubt the UFC would put such a hard push behind a fighter whose only UFC fight was a welterweight bout six years ago. Then again it certainly makes more business sense than Yushin Okami or Brian Stann as coaches. The winner of Wanderlei Silva vs Chris Leben at UFC 132 would be ideal but I think taping of the show needs to start too soon for that.

As for Sonnen, everything hinges on his sentencing in the felony case on April 8th. Provided that his sentence will allow him to compete, I expect he and the UFC will take the wiser course and avoid trying to get Chael licensed to fight in Nevada for any reason.

It's very sad that Sonnen's personal failings have so thoroughly torpedoed his career. Ironically it was Sonnen's knack for making preposterous claims in public in the build up to UFC 117 that made him a star.

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Georges St-Pierre Lays Out Jake Shields’ Game Plan for UFC 129

Georges St-Pierre Lays Out Jake Shields’ Game Plan for UFC 129

Georges St-Pierre Lays Out Jake Shields’ Game Plan for UFC 129

Written by Tom Ngo
April 5th, 2011

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Welterweight king Georges St-Pierre claims to already have the answers for his upcoming exam against Jake Shields. Perhaps that’s why he’s a whopping 5-to-1 favorite to retain his crown at UFC 129 on April 30th.
“I know what he’s going to want to do to me,” St-Pierre matter-of-factly stated. “He’s going to want to setup his takedown with striking, pull me down, mount me and try to submit me from there.
“He doesn’t know what I’m going to do to him. I can try to knock him out standing, I can knock him out on the floor, I can submit him. I’m not afraid to go on the floor with him.”
GSP was last seen steamrolling Josh Koscheck at UFC 124 in December. The win was his eighth consecutive lopsided victory and fifth straight successful title defense.
Shields earned his shot at the brass ring with his split decision win over Martin Kampmann at UFC 121.

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Ben Askren is not impressed by bonus-chasing 'losers' like Leonard Garcia

Ben Askren is not impressed by bonus-chasing 'losers' like Leonard Garcia

Sounds like Ben Askren has mastered the art of subtlety.
The brash Bellator welterweight champion, who is undefeated in his "Funky" mixed martial arts career, will go head-to-head with Nick Thompson in the main event of Bellator 40 this Saturday night (April 9, 2011) at the First Council Casino, in Newkirk, Oklahoma.
So, what can we expect this weekend from the collegiate wrestling champion and former Olympian?
Well, according to his interview with the Sherdog Radio Network’s "Beatdown" show, he won't be submitted (because of his wrestling pedigree) and he won't be knocked out (because of his wrestling pedigree).
So what's left?
Just winning, according to Askren, which is why he got into MMA in the first place. To win. He doesn't want to fight for a "bonus" or to entertain the masses, like some of the other "losers" in the UFC.
Hear it directly from the horse's mouth (via Fight Opinion):

"I think people like that are losers because, in my mind, a fight's about winning, not about putting on a show. We're not singers, we're not actors, we are mixed martial artists or fighters or athletes, whichever way you wanna do it and that's about winning ... When you're fighting for 25 minutes, every fan and their mother can talk shit about this and that and don't finish fights. Well, why don't they get in there and fight for 25 minutes? That's a long time. And you got to win before you show. I mean, people that show on top of winning, say Anderson Silva, that dude now he's a showman but he's also won, what, 13 fights in a row? So, obviously, he can do it. And there's people like Leonard Garcia who goes out and puts on a show but he's like 3-5 in his last 8 fights. Like, c'mon dude."

Since Askren is tucked safely behind the Bellator curtain, the chances of him having to back up what he says against some of the UFC's elite are fairly slim.
Then again, the way Zuffa has been known to acquire rival promotions, you can never say "never" in this industry. With that in mind, where do you rank the wrestling phenom in your 170-pound list -- if at all?
And do you agree with his assessment of fighters who fight to entertain and win bonuses? Or is he completely off base? Would a $100,000 "Fight Night" bonus be able to change his mind?

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40 of the greatest Dana White F-Bombs Quotes Video.

40 of the greatest Dana White F-Bombs Quotes Video.

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