Georges St. Pierre

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Published: February 9th, 2012 @ 01:59 PM

Georges St-Pierre: A Detailed Look Behind UFC 100

We’re two weeks before the fight. I’m in my hardest phase of training - this is my last week of hard training. Then after I’m gonna slow down and relax a little just before my fight because the week of the fight you don’t do much. My trainer keeps telling me to not be over-trained and that’s my biggest mistake that I do sometimes. On last Friday on my last sparring when I finished the fifth round, I felt very tired, and I felt that I was a little bit over-trained. I start the week very hard, and have Nathan Marquardt this week training with me. So, I had a great training partner to prepare for the fight. My last sparring was on the Friday 7/6, the week before the fight. I did five five-minute rounds – very, very intense and the last round was with two guys who were sparring with me 2.5 minutes each, one after the other one. I felt I did very well, but my timing at the end of the sparring was a little bit off because I was probably a little bit over-trained and little bit over the line. In sports, it’s better being under the line than over the line ‘cuz when you’re over the line you don’t recuperate as well, you don’t sleep as well and you can get injury. Because I felt a little bit over-trained, I took the weekend off. I went to the spa, a place where I can do a sauna and steam room and jump in ice cold water to help my body recover from all the hard training that I have. Saturday night I went to my house for the last time having dinner with my parents to see them for the last time before the fight - it’s like a tradition I have before the fight. I have to go to my parents’ house and eat a very good meal, because the following morning (Sunday) I start my diet, cutting the carbs down and the sodium for the weigh-in.Monday morning 11am – we just arrive in Vegas that’s the week of the fight. And I’m very nervous the week of the fight - even though people talk more about Brock Lesnar’s fight and this fight is less expected than my fight against BJ Penn, I truly believe that’s what makes it even more dangerous. I’m training at night around 8:30pm because I’ll probably fight around that time, so I want my body being acclimatized to it. When I’m training in the room sometimes there is a lot of other fighters, so we don’t have a lot of room and my workout total is 45 minutes maximum. I hit pads, I do some drill on the ground and wrestling. And then some shadow boxing to finish, then stretching, then I leave…that my routine. I do it every day until Thursday night. The cooks that I brought with me, Ross and Jennifer, are making amazing meals and that helps me losing my weight for the weigh-in process. Friday…weigh in day. I wake up at 175.5lbs. So I right away go and weigh myself on the official scale, and make sure that the weight is right and the scale that I got in my room is accurate and then I go in the sauna and lose the rest of the weight that I have to lose to make 170. It’s pretty hard because I see people drinking juice and eating in front of me, and it makes me very cranky. After the weigh-in, the only thing that I am thinking about is eating! So I go to my favorite restaurant in Las Vegas, with all my friends from Montreal and all my training partners coming in Vegas to support me for the fight. And I have a very good time. At night I’m staying at the hotel and I’m eating a pizza, homemade without cheese, made by the cooks that I hired for this trip. Saturday – fight day. I didn’t sleep much because I’m very nervous, I’m very stressed - I sleep maybe five to six hours. I wake up a couple of times during the night because I’m very nervous. But right now it’s not too bad because I know it’s a normal thing. I decide to go take my breakfast around 10:30am (I eat oatmeal with banana and an orange juice). I drink a lot of water. After that I go and do my rehearsal in the Octagon. I go walk in the Octagon and walk around in the locker room behind to make sure I’m used to the place and I feel good when I’m going to be there and make this place (like) my home. Then I go back to my hotel and I take a little nap. A little nap during the time that I'm not going to be able to sleep because I’m too nervous thinking about the fight. But it’s still good to shut down a little bit and relax before the fight. At four o’clock I go back and take my second meal of the day. I eat always pasta with orange juice again. I eat a lot with chicken. Then I go put my suit on and psyche myself ready to go to the arena. When I'm in the locker room I find out that I’m matched with Frank Mir. He’s a very nice guy, I like him, so it’s very cool. So the night starts and we’re supposed to be the last fight before Brock Lesnar and Frank Mir, so we’re having fun, we talk and making jokes between each other even though I’m very scared and nervous. All of a sudden, I'm starting to put my wrap and my gloves on and I'm not even warm, and when Michael Bisping got knocked out, one of the guys of the athletic commission came in and he told me that I'm next! I'm very surprised because I was not prepared for this…I was not warm enough…and it was unexpected. But I have to deal with it. Stuff happens. I guess it was for the TV they wanted to put the final fight at a certain time. So I walked in the Octagon…even though I'm not as warm as I should have been, I tried to jump and keep moving to make my body warm. The fight starts. I have to keep my strategy in mind. Stay standing up, stay always on the outside, hit and run, touch and not getting touched. And if he becomes too aggressive, put him down - once he is down avoiding the fence because he is very good at getting up from the fence. So I'm very focused, the fight is going well until the fourth round when I try an arm-bar from his back and something happened…I felt my right abductor cracking…something went wrong. I hear the noise of the ligament ripping. I end up in my guard and Thiago Alves landing big shot on me. I hold his head down, I wrap his arm, protect myself and I make a prayer in my head: “Please God, help me to get out of this situation, I work so hard to win this fight and give me the strength to keep going and fight well.” I found a way to stand up - I pushed my thighs and pushing in his hips and I stand back up, and even though I'm in a lot of pain I keep fighting. Round four, when I came back in my corner I told my trainer Greg Jackson that I pulled my groin. All of my trainers are very worried. Greg Jackson answers back to me, “I don’t care! This is how champions are made! Fight on it and hit him with your groin! I thought I was kind of funny (afterward) but it was not funny during the fight. The fifth round starts and in my head I have only one thing…not getting hit and winning the fight. Be able to survive and stay there until the end. The round starts and I tell myself if I only try to survive, I'm going to be easy prey, so the best defense is an offense. So I make sure that he respects me by using my jab on his head. So the fifth round starts, I throw a couple of take downs and even though I was in a lot of pain, I was able to control the fight and win in a unanimous decision. When I came back in the locker room, I was mad because I didn’t control the fight and I was not able to finish Alves on the ground like I had been planning to do. What made me mad a little bit is that Fabio Hollanda, a guy that was teaching me a couple of years ago, was in a Florida training Thiago Alves even though a month before he was training with me at the wrestling club. I think it was a cheap shot and he should have told me. But I forgive him - I will be more careful with him next time. When I came back to the locker room, even though I was in a lot of pain, I asked my trainer John Danaher to show me what I been doing wrong during that fight to allow Thiago Alves to stand up so many times. He showed it to me, so like that it’s fresh in my mind and I know right away what I did wrong in the fight and I will never do the same mistake again. I was very happy, even though it was a very hard night. But with the help of Jay Kiss and Steven Friend, I had a treatment and I felt a lot better after it. The swelling and the pain I had went down dramatically. Because of this, I was still able to meet my fans that showed up at my after party at the Foundation Room. This was a special event, because it benefits my Foundation, and it was very fun. I also met the guy who gave me my new logo, Raymond de Ramos, which I really like – thanks again to all my fans who support me.The next day I went at a pool party at Rehab with all my friends who came to support me. We had a booth (cabana) and it was great spot in the place. I drank so much that I forgot my whole name. It was very cool because at one time, Thiago Alves showed up with his entourage and came in my booth (cabana) and drinking with me and congratulate me for the fight. I thought he was a class act and that prove that he was a real professional athlete and a real good person and a gentleman. I really appreciated it, he’s a great fighter and also a great gentleman, and we had a good time drinking together. John Fitch showed up as well, and we celebrate together our victories. Shonie Carter came a little bit later with a gold speedo and a hat and a cane dressed like a pimp with his cane. He make us laugh very much and as always me and Shonie had a great time because Shonie is a good old friend of mine. We had an amazing time at Rehab then I came back to my hotel…took a little nap of one hour and went back to a club at night called Body English at the Hard Rock Hotel. I drank so much that I couldn’t sleep at night. I took my plane the following Monday – when I got on the plane…I think I was still drunk. The flight went very well. People who know me know that I can’t sleep on the plane, because I'm always afraid of flying, but the fact that I was drunk helped me out controlling my fear. I watched the movie Shawshank Redemption - it’s very, very good. Then I came back home, went to have dinner at my parents’ place and had the chance to watch my fight again. It’s very funny because when you watch your fight on TV, it’s so much different because when you’re in it, you don’t have any clue of how the fight looks on the perception of the people who look at it. I want to thank everybody who helped me out for that training camp out and support me. Thank you very much.

Georges St-Pierre: Alves Is The Toughest Challenge I've Had

So for the past two months, I’m training really hard before my fight. Three weeks I spent in New York doing Muay Thai at the Wat with Phil Nurse and all the guys over there, sparring with Shawn Imes, Brad and all those great training partners that I have for Muay Thai training. I’m learning a lot from Kru Phil. I also train in New York in Renzo Gracie Academy under supervision of John Danaher – he’s my Brazilian Jiu Jitsu instructor. I have great training partners there as well. The level of jiu jitsu in New York at Renzo Gracie is better than it is in Montreal, so that’s one of the main reasons why I’m going there and I spend so much time at that Academy. I’m learning new move every day and I met some new friends that I will bring in Montreal for help me train for the fight. In Montreal everything goes well. Oh I always wrestle, box and do my Muay Thai and jiu jitsu in different places, as well as my strength and conditioning. Everything goes well – I just beat my record on snatches with a dumb-bell. Now I can snatch 100 lbs. 3 repetitions with 1 arm, which is something that I never thought I was ever going to be able to do when I first start training with Jonathan Chaimberg because I was struggling to lift like a 60 lb over my head and now I can do 3 reps with 100 lbs. I got so much stronger than I was, and that make me very confident for my next fight, because I know Thiago Alves is a very big guy and very powerful and he has been able to dominate a lot of these guys because of his superior strength and superior size. But I truly believe that it’s not going to work against me. About one month away from my fight, I decided to stay in Montreal and instead of traveling like in New York and Albuquerque, I decide to bring all my training partner in to avoid me to travel, being tired and get stuck with some virus during the airplane transportation. I have many guys who came in town recently - John Danaher from New York came for my jiu jitsu – he showed me some amazing stuff that I will be able to use. I also work with Jean-Charles Skarbowsky, who’s a legend in Muay Thai who spent most of his life in Thailand. He came with two of his top students, and he showed me a bunch of stuff in Muay Thai that I’ll also be able to use during my fight. And the fact that he came with two of his top students – it give me a good idea of what is world-class Muay Thai fighter and it’s gonna help me gauge the speed and the power of a real Muay Thai guy. Also I have some other guys coming in town – one of my friends from New York – Steven Williams came and helped me train for the fight as well. He’s an amazing fighter and he joined the group, you know, in Montreal and helped me out very much to help me for that fight. I also have a bunch of guys coming up for the next couple of weeks like Nathan Marquardt and they’re going to help me get prepared as much as I can for this fight. I’m very excited, I’m very nervous – I remember when I was young, when I started my career, I thought that the nervousness will go away with the time. But I realized that is wrong – because as far as my career goes, the more bigger are the fights and the more pressure I have. I’m always nervous. But I think this nervousness is a good thing, because that’s what keeps me sharp. And even though I’m just as nervous as I was in the beginning, the thing is, with the experience, I learn how to deal with it by control and I know it’s normal and I can sleep better at night. I always have butterflies, but the key is - make the butterflies fly in formation. Being part of UFC 100 – it’s a great honor for me because I know it’s going to be a historical show. Even though the focus is not strictly on my fight like it was last time when I fought BJ Penn, it makes this fight even more dangerous. Thiago Alves is the greatest challenge that I had in my career – he’s gonna be the toughest guy that I fought so far, and that’s what makes him very dangerous is he’s a very confident guy, he’s a gentleman, and he doesn’t have to talk trash. So even though he doesn’t talk trash, I know he’s going to come out very strong and try to hurt me really bad early in the fight. However, I will be very well prepared. I try to focus on what I’m going to do to him instead of focusing too much on what he’s going to do to me. I’m a very busy person during training camp – I try to “keep the main thing the main thing” and the main thing is to win my fight. It’s very important for me that I take away all the distractions – my manager who takes cares of everything of the fight for me has been very busy as well. So we’re both in lockdown mode and hopefully the people around us can understand it. Shari will have more information in her blog, but I know she’s been very very busy getting everything ready for the fight, the website, the Expo, the after party – she takes care of things so I can focus on the main thing. Thank you everybody for the support and I received almost 1300 logos. I will be glad and honored to wear my new logo on my shorts. I look forward to meet the winner at my after party July 11th. For my after party this time I have a new formula – I’m gonna do something more private that will benefit my foundation. Remember, it’s for a good cause, and for me, doing something for kids, it’s a way to give back to the society and it’s a way for me to help the world get better in a way, you know? On my website, GSPFightClub.com, we’re auctioning 50 spots to the after party to benefit my foundation – I hope to see you there. Even though I won’t be there, please come check my booth at the Fan Expo. I will have a bunch of stuff, like bandanas, t-shirts, a lot of things, pictures, autographed stuff that will be there and everybody is welcome. Thanks very much everybody – I really appreciate your support and my main focus is on winning the fight July 11th and after it’s going to be party time. Ha! Ha!

And the winner is....

I'm in New York right now training, but check out Shari's blog for the logo contest winner. And I promise I'll write more soon about my training....

It's Time to Vote

Let me know which one you like best!

I AM Impressed with your performance!

It’s Thursday April 16 - there is a lot of stuff going on in the city of Montreal because it’s the weekend of UFC 97. Even though I’m not fighting, I’m pretty busy training and doing a lot of PR and stuff. On Friday I was invited to a little lunch with a bunch of reporter to promote the new video game UFC 2009 Undisputed. And I had to play for the first time against Dana White in front of everybody – all the reporter. And Dana was talking very loud that he was undefeated, he was 4 and 0 and beat [Michael] Bisping, Rampage Jackson, [Rich] Franklin and then Anderson [Silva] - so it was a very good challenge. I’m not a big fan of video game - I never played UFC Undisputed before. But I used play back in the day…Mortal Combat and Street Fighter on the Super Nintendo, but this game is pretty different and much more improved than the one that I’ve played before. So I pick my character [me] and Dana picked BJ Penn, and as the fight goes on it’s pretty even. And at the end, maybe by some luck, I’m able to knock him out and win the match. Everybody is laughing and I’m the one who is the most surprised of all. And I look at Dana and I yell at him “Ha! That’s your first loss! And I made your first loss in Montreal in front of my people!”. And he look at me and he respond “Are you sure you’re not cheating? I think you put some Vaseline on my remote!”, and I laugh like crazy. Playing myself in the video game was kind of strange - and it was pretty accurate of the moves that I use in real life. They have my Superman Kick, Superman Punch, and all my special move - that’s pretty interesting. I really enjoy it and I think just because of it. I’m gonna buy a video game with UFC Undisputed because it’s a pretty fun game to play. After beating Dana I went to the Fan Club Q&A. It was pretty fun - I could meet many fans and especially one guy made me really laugh. He asked me the question, “What you want to do after your career?”, and then I respond, “I don’t know - maybe trainer or go back to school, but I think I’m gonna still be involved in the sport because I love it too much.” And one guy yell at me “Georges St-Pierre for Prime Minister!”, and all the crowd went crazy. Mike Goldberg and everybody was laughing - it was a pretty funny moment. Then after that I met a Canadian soldier, Jody Mitic, who lost his leg(s) in Afghanistan in the war. At first I was pretty sad to see that, but I was very impressed with the way the guy handled himself and stayed very positive. You know, sometime our life go bad, but we forget that for some people it’s even worse than for us, so it give me more motivation when I see something like that when something bad happen to me. Then at the weigh-in, I look at my two friend Denis Kang and David Loiseau. They were right on the nose - 185. I was very happy and I went back with my manager and had a great dinner at my favorite restaurant, Cavalli. The next day it was UFC 97. Before the show I went training and I had one of my friend who were in town, Eric Owing - he’s a great jiu-jitsu guy. I train with him before the show and then after we all head to the Belle Center for the UFC. I was very disappointed for my friend David Loiseau - unfortunately he work really hard in training camp but the fight didn’t go his way. But I had some kind of consoling when I see Denis Kang – he fought a great fight and win in a unanimous decision. I think the best fight of the night was Shogun vs. Chuck Liddell - what a great performance by Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. The fight at the end was pretty boring and I felt bad because sometime the crowd was yelling “GSP!” while Anderson Silva and Thales Leites were fighting. And I felt bad - I think it’s kind of disrespectful for Anderson Silva and Leites, even though it make me feel happy a little bit. Sometime the fight doesn’t happen like people want - it’s a question of style and question of match-up. But I still think Anderson Silva is one of the best pound-for-pound in the world with Fedor Emelianenko. I been screaming so much during that show because I was sitting with Lorenzo Fertitta right in front, and I was yelling instruction to my friend - so I end up losing my voice and it take me a couple of days to get back to it. (That’s why I haven’t blogged in a while.) The Sunday after UFC 97, I head to New York for training at Renzo Gracie’s Academy with John Danaher and also at The Wat with Phil Nurse. Training was great and I had a chance to meet Brian Fox who made a painting of me. It’s the most accurate painting that I’ve seen of myself in my whole life. This guy is amazing - he’s got an incredible talent and it was a pleasure for me to meet this guy. Training is going very well. I had a chance to roll with some of the best jiu jitsu guys, spar with some of the best muay thai guys in the sport and it make me a better fighter every time. I came back for the weekend in Montreal - time to rest a little bit and train with my home guys. But right away on Sunday I was supposed to go in Albuquerque - my plane got canceled after waiting three hour in the airport. Pretty bad - I’m very bad lucky with the plane, but it’s because of a storm in Chicago that I would have missed my connection and they decide to cancel my flight and [reschedule] it the next day. So I made it to Albuquerque on Monday - I came in Albuquerque to help out Rashad for his fight against Lyoto Machida and to be able to spar with some of the guys there to help me out, too. I think Rashad is gonna do well with Machida. Training camp is going well for him - he look very, very sharp. And I can’t wait – it’s gonna be a very interesting fight. I want to finish by saying “thank you” to the fan who send me their logo for the contest. I have more than 500 entry. It’s gonna be very hard to pick the best one because they are all pretty good.

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