Brock Lesnar's toughest opponent

Seventeen months after announcing his triumphant comeback from a severe case of diverticulosis, UFC heavyweight Brock Lesnar has again been sidelined by the intestinal infection.

Thursday afternoon the UFC used a quickly convened conference call to announce that this latest flareup of the disease will keep Lesnar out of the octagon indefinitely, forcing him out of a scheduled June 11 showdown in Vancouver with fellow contender Junior Dos Santos.

The winner of that bout was to have faced Cain Velasquez, who knocked Lesnar out to claim the UFC heavyweight crown last October. And while Lesnar's disappointed at the missed opportunity he says the return of the intestinal disorder has forced him to prioritize.

"I'm choked up about it (but)there's nothing I can do," said Lesnar, a former WWE star who joined the UFC in 2008. "There isn't a fight in the world that's more important than my health."

In November 2009 a severe case of diverticulosis felled Lesnar while on a hunting trip in Manitoba, leading to an experience with the Canadian health care system that left the then-heavyweight champion less than impressed. 

A month later UFC president Dana White still wasn't sure if the disease would allow Lesnar to compete again, but the turn of the year 2010 also brought a turn in Lesnar's health. By the end of January he announced that medication plus a new, healthier diet had chased the disease into remission, and June he had vanquished interim champ Shane Carwin to reclaim the UFC's heavyweight belt.

The path back to that title was supposed to go through Dos Santos, a hard-hitting Brazilian who hasn't lost since 2007. Earlier this year the UFC chose the two men to coach opposing teams of aspiring fighters on the SpikeTV reality show The Ultimate Fighter, with all sub-plots leading to their clash at UFC 131 in Vancouver.

But three weeks ago Lesnar felt a familiar pain in his abdomen.

The sheer stress of three-a-day workouts had allowed the infection, which never fully leaves a patient's system, to regain a foothold. Lesnar responded by scaling back his training while taking antibiotics, but after three weeks of cutting corners he realized he'd never be able to prepare properly while still fighting the infection.

"It didn't allow me to train to my full capabilities," says Lesnar, who won the UFC title in just his third pro bout. "It just drains my whole body down" 

When Lesnar decided to pull out of the fight the UFC summoned Carwin to replace him against Dos Santos.

But the next steps for the fighter aren't so clear.

He's considering surgery, but hasn't yet established a timeline to decide whether to undergo it. In the meantime he'll consult with doctors at the Mayo clinic over the best way to subdue the stubborn infection.

"There's a solution to every problem," he says. "I've just got to find the right solution to this problem"

But despite the uncertainty over surgery, Lesnar is sure he will return to the Octagon eventually.

"I'm looking for the light at the end of the tunnel here," he said. "I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired. We've got to find a solution to this."

 

 

GSP is rich; Dana White is wealthy

PARENTAL ADVISORY...EXPLICIT LANGUAGE ON THE CHRIS ROCK CLIP

Fighter payouts from UFC 129 are now public, and it doesn't take a Bill James-style statistical guru to figure out for all the physical and mental strain that go with preparing for these bouts, the payoff is paltry.

Naturally Georges St-Pierre tops the pay scale, banking $400,000 for his decision win over Jake Shields, while Lyoto Machida grossed $329,000 for his flying front kick knockout of Randy Couture, who himself earned $250,000.

Those three men consumed more than 53 percent of the UFC's total payroll, with less than $1 million spread between 21 other fighters.

St-Pierre might be the closest thing the UFC has to Manny Pacquiao -- a dominant fighter inside the ring and an endearing character outside of it, someone whose fame crosses borders and who demonstrates that the American sports mainstream can indeed embrace foreign stars. 

But at the bank, Rush can't touch the Pac Man.

St-Pierre's $200,000 guarantee is roughly one percent of what Pacqiao is promised for his showdown this Saturday with Shane Mosely, and UFC 129's entire payroll ($1.84 million) translates into about a round of work for boxing's pound-for-pound champ.

That's not an accident.

It's how the UFC is built -- top down, president Dana White as the face of the organization while the fighters are interchangeable pieces, even when they're famous. Some -- like St-Pierre and Anderson Silva -- gain fame, but none gains true independence.

Which is smart business, because it significantly limits the UFC's financial exposure and, most importantly, competition.

Guarantee headliners sums that rival Vernon Wells' salary and you risk losing money if for some reason the pay-per-view doesn't sell. A guarantee is a guarantee, after all.

Beyond that, if the UFC starts paying its stars Pacquiao money it risks blurring the boundary between the wealthy and the merely rich. It's important distinction, pointed out brilliantly by comedian Chris Rock, because when that border shifts so does the balance of power.

St-Pierre's not poor.

His $400,000 paycheques are bigger than he would earn fighting for any other promoter. He won't make that kind of cash fighting on the Score, and he wouldn't bank like that with Strikeforce, the former competitor the UFC bought earlier this year. 

But while his purses are big enough to keep St-Pierre at home they're still small enough to keep him from getting ideas.

You guys ever wonder why Oscar De La Hoya is always smiling?

It's because 10 years ago he figured out that the best way to make big, sustainable, money in boxing is to get paid when other people fight. So in 2001 he founded Golden Boy Promotions.

Because the boxers can get rich, but promoters are wealthy.

And you know how he made the leap between the two?

By being the sport's cash cow for a decade and a half, stacking eight-figure paydays until he could afford to go into business for himself. Before Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather surpassed him no boxer cashed bigger cheques than the Golden Boy, who had earned more than $150 million in the ring even before grossing $43 million more against Mayweather in 2007. 

By then, of course, he was six years into his career as fighter-promoter, the dual role ensuring that no matter the outcome the Golden Boy would always win at the bank. And after years of depending on people like Bob Arum and Don King, De La Hoya competes with them.

For fighters.

For clout.

For the pay-per-view airtime that sustains the sport.

Like De La Hoya decade ago, St-Pierre is the biggest name in his sport, and a recognizeable face that makes him not just a fighter but a business unto himself.

Which isn't to say that St-Pierre shares De La Hoya's long term ambition. He might not want to trade the stress of being a fighter for the headaches of employing a roster of them. Not now, not ever.

But this isn't about St-Pierre. Its about the top-down structure of the UFC that allows fighters like him to earn very good money, but never enough to acquire clout.

Not at $400,000 per win.

So even if he wanted to graduate from competing in the UFC to competing against them, the chances of him making it happen are slimmer than St-Pierre himself the morning of the weigh in.

Which is to say it won't happen.

And the UFC doesn't mind that at all.

 

Follow the Star's Morgan Campbell on twitter.

Hurry up and wait for UFC-Strikeforce crossover clashes

If you're looking for evidence of the UFC-ization of Strikeforce, head to YouTube.

Before the UFC took over the second-biggest promotional outfit in mixed martial arts, you knew that if you missed a Strikeforce card on a given Saturday night you could head to the world's largest video sharing website to see fairly high-quality replays of the night's biggest fights.

Not anymore.

If you logged post-fight looking for a video of Strikeforce welterweight champ Nick Diaz' dramatic knockout win over Paul Daley, Youtube wasn't going to give you much beyond a few archived previews and a grainy, filmed-off-of-TV replay of the fight's finish.

But if you have SuperChannel or were at the right sports bar you saw the expert grappler Diaz defeat the dangerous Daley on the striker's terms, surviving a knockdown and several other tense moments to pummell an exhausted Daley in the closing seconds of the first round.

The win was Diaz' 10th in a row and it solidified both his grip on Strikeforce's 170-title and his claim as one of the world's very best welterweights, regardless of what organization owns his contract. And since stopping Daley, Diaz has become the subject of speculation that he's the fighter most suited for a superfight with Georges St-Pierre (provided, of course, GSP handles Jake Shields in Toronto April 30).

Couple of big obstacles to that fight, though.

The first is skill.

Yes, Diaz is by far the most impressive welterweight on StrikeForce's roster, especially since Shields jumped to the UFC. And yes, a 10-fight unbeaten streak is difficult to string together in MMA, no matter your level of competition.

But we don't know how Diaz, who last fought in the UFC in 2006, is more qualified to take on St. Pierre than the UFC's current crop of welterweights. It's tough to picture him reeling off 10 straight wins when facing guys like Thiago Alves, Jon Fitch and Josh Koscheck, and tougher to picture him faring any better than those three did against GSP.

Secondly, and most importantly, there's red tape.

Earlier this winter UFC bought Strikeforce, whose president, Scott Coker, says with enthusiasm that interpromotional showdowns aren't just appealing but inevitable. But UFC boss Dana White still hasn't budged from his initial intention to run the two outfits as separate companies.

Which means MMA fans can brace for the same dilemma that has bedeviled boxing fans for a generation:

Disputed champs.

Multiple beltholders in the same weight class tantalyzingly close to squareing off to determine who really rules, but who in the end never do because promoters and sactioning bodies can't get on the same page.

Fans who need to satisfy themselves with debating dream matchups instead of seeing them.

That scenario's only fun to in that if you make a prediction on a fight that is never going to happen, you can never be proven wrong (Mayweather KO's Pacquiao in three!!!). And the idea of keeping Strikeforce stars out of the cage with UFC champs seems to contradict the strategy that helped the UFC rise to the top of the fight game in the first place. Because the UFC holds the contracts of just about every MMA fighter we care about, the UFC can make just about every fight fans want to see.

And theory, taking over Strikeforce should expand the UFC's list of potential pay-per-view headliners.

After all, who wouldn't wanto to see Strikeforce heavyweight champ Allistair Overeem throw down with Cain Velasquez?

Or watch Strikeforce 155-pound dynamo Gilbert Melendez tangle with any of the UFC's talented crop of lightweights.

Or see Herschel Walker take on Randy Couture in a Battle of the Aged.

Aside from Walker-Couture, the appetite among fans for those fights and many others exist.

But for the UFC, for the moment, the desire to make them happen doesn't.

 

Walker's return no gimmick but Strikeforce needs the attention

A year after his pro MMA debut, NFL legend Herschel Walker is set to make his second appearence in the Strikeforce cage (Saturday, 10 p.m Superchannel).

And while the 48-year-old isn't sure how long his MMA career will last, he's positive  he'll devote himself fully to the sport for as long as it holds is attention. To some people Walker's MMA venture might look like a publicity stunt but Walker insists he's as serious about fighting now as he was about football in the 1980s and 1990s.

"This isn't a gimmick for me. This is life," said Walker, who won his MMA debut by lopsided stoppage last January. "This is nothing but hard work. I've never turned down a challenge and i don't do it now.

Still, you have to forgive anyone who concludes that Walker's return to the cage is a desperate play for attention from a faded football star and a sanctioning body that's struggling to remain relevant.

The last time a Strikeforce event received this much attention was the last time Walker competed. Since then the UFC gobbled up an even larger share of the MMA market by absorbing the WEC, while Strikeforce has increasing become a minor league for fighters the UFC no longer wants (see Diaz, Nick; Daley, Paul).

Last summer Strikeforce relentlessly hyped a network TV appearance by its marquee fighter, uncrowned heavyweight king Fedor Emilanenko, and he repaid that investment of time and effort by crumbling quickly beneath the fists of Fabricio Werdum.

With Emilianenko scrubbed clean of the lustre his decade-long unbeaten streak imparted, and with the rest of Strikeforce's roster populated with fighters unknown outside MMA's community of hardcore fans, Walker stands out as the only fighter in the organization capable of attracting the attention of mainstream media and fans.

Nevertheless, Strikeforce president Scott Coker swears the company's not using Walker that way.

The truth, Coker says, is that if Walker wasn't a real fighter he wouldn't be fighting, period, and that Walker's football fame skews the public's expectations.

"The MMA media at times is too hard o n Herschel," Coker said in Monday's conference call. "I feel that's just because of who he is."

For his second trip to the cage Walker will square off against Scott Carson, a light-heavyweight by trade who will gain a little weight to face the 225-pound Walker. He's a little more accomplished than Walker's first opponent, but a look at his record tells you he's spent most of the last decade outside formal competition. Between the two men you could argue that Walker, a lifelong martial artist, actually has less "ring" rust.

The bout was originally scheduled to take place in late 2010, but Walker suffered a cut over his eye in training, forcing Strikeforce to move the bout this weekend.

But Walker says he didn't even have a return to Strikeforce in mind when he re-entered serious training last June.

Instead he says he re-immersed himself in MMA training strictly because he wanted to improve as a martial artist, and that the opportunity to face Carson simply arose.

But he also trains because in a few years he hopes to become the George Foreman of football, returning to the NFL at age 50. And he says training in MMA is the best way to prepare his body for that challenge.

"(MMA) is human chess and that's why I want to be involve with it," he said. "I think I'm a better conditioned athlete (now) than I was when I was playing."

 

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UFC contender requests his next opponent: Barack Obama

Rough week for Republicans in the UFC.

First, arch-conservative and middleweight menace Chael Sonnen complete his journey from stardom to oblivion by pleading guilty to money laundering in a real estate fraud scheme.

That judgement earned him a one-year suspension from the UFC, which effectively extends the year-long ban imposed on him by the California State Athletic commission when the urine sample provided after his near-dethroning of Anderson Silva came back positive for elevated testosterone.

A man simultaneously so sanctimonious and so crooked might fit in well at the head of the Tea Party, but is a poor spokesperson for a sport still trying to debunk the notion that it's full of roided up thugs who pummel people for fun.

And this week UFC lightweight Jacob Volkmann made that task a little tougher, using his post-fight interview at UFC 125 to challenge U.S. President Barack Obama to a fistfight. 

Constitutional expert that president Obama is, he understands better than anyone Volkmann's first amendment right to say ignorant things, and the final minute of the video below drips with absurd statements.

 

So Volkmann wants to "knock some sense" into Obama over health care reform?

Interesting, but two thoughts instantly pop up in my mind.

First, as my good friend and mentor Gary "Gee Free" Freeman pointed out when he first sent me the link, any world class fighter who challenges an obvious non-pugilist to a fight is about as close to a coward as a pro fighter can be. And if he's not a coward, he's at least a bully. Either way, his challenge feeds right back into the stereotype MMA advocates are trying to dispell (see above about thugs and pumelling for fun).

Second, if Volkmann was as really politically aware he'd realize he could hardly give Obama a worse beating than the one disenchanted voters delivered during mid-term elections in November. As I type the new, republican-dominated congress is convening for the first time and their chief objecttive is to cut the legs out from under the health care reform Obama fought so hard to achieve.

So relax, Volkmann.

Soon enough the American citizens priced out of decent health care in the past will be priced out once again. And when that happens you can go back to finding a way to crack the 155-pound division's glass ceiling, and leave the half-baked political rants to the professionals.

 

Follow the Star's Morgan Campbell on Twitter

 

 

Fans win, Pettis loses in Edgar-Maynard draw

So nobody won Saturday night's thoroughly entertaining UFC main event between lightweight champ Frankie Edgar and challenger Gray Maynard, but one guy loses:

Anthony Pettis.

At the last-ever WEC event on Dec. 16 Pettis dethroned 155-pound champ Ben Henderson, a win that was supposed to guarantee him a shot at the Edgar-Maynard winner once the UFC absorbs the WEC and all its weight classes. But the New Year's Night draw means a title shot for Pettis and his Matrix Kick will have to wait until the UFC settles the dispute Maynard and Edgar couldn't quite resolve in the Octagon.

For 25 minutes Edgar and Maynard traded strikes, takedowns and respect, and their entertaining main event put officials back in the spotlight by presenting the question that dogs anybody judges a fight anywhere:

Who do you favour -- the guy who wins more rounds or the guy who wins rounds by more?

Two weeks earlier the issue popped up in the boxing ring, when 45-year-old Bernard Hopkins battled back from a pair of early knockdowns to earn a draw against Montreal's Jean Pascal in a bout many people (including me) thought Hopkins won.

Saturday night judges stared down the same dilemma when Edgar weathered a first-round Maynard onslaught many spectators (including me) thought would do him in.

Midway through the first round Maynard, who decisioned Edgar in 2008, dropped the champ with a left hook and spent the rest of the round battering Edgar with his fists, bloodying his nose and keeping him  woozy until the final bell.

But when the second round started Edgar emerged from his corner refreshed, punctuating his comeback by nailing Maynard with a powerslam that would make Davey Boy Smith proud.

From there Edgar spent the remainder of the fight chipping away at Maynard, stopping the takedowns that made Maynard so successful in their first fight, whiplashing the challenger's head with crisp combinations and earning a split decision draw at the end of five rounds.

Post-fight shots of Edgar in the locker room showed him looking despondent, but this result didn't feel to me like a robbery.

It felt like a relief.

When we learned Hopkins and Pascal had drawn you felt a slight sense of injustice. Pascal's first knockdown, after all, came when he landed an illegal blow to the back of Hopkins' head and thus should have earned him a warning and not a reward. And Hopkins' body attack gutted Pascal, sapping the champion of all his early speed and forcing him into full retreat by round eight.

Hopkins won more rounds and won them convincingly yet could only salvage a draw. Given Pascal's massive early lead you can't say Hopkins was outright robbed, but he sure was jobbed and now will have to wait for a rematch that may never happen.

Edgar, meanwhile, appeared certain to lose by first-round TKO, and earned a moral victory by simply surviving until the second frame.

He spent the final four rounds of the fight gnawing away at Maynard's lead but in a five-round fight you weren't sure if he had time to overtake Maynard on the judges' cards.

One judge said Edgar did it, giving him a win by two points. A second judge scored it 48-46 Maynard, while the third sealed a split-decision draw by calling the bout even.

That third scorecard also all but ensures Edgar and Maynard will add a third chapter to a series in which the stakes and skill levels rise with each bout.

In that scenario fight fans can't help but win even if Pettis loses.

 

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New Jiu Jitsu magazine seeks perfect balance

If BJ (The Prodigy) Penn's MMA career has taught us anything, it's not that you don't need a physique to succeed. Royce Gracie proved that in the mid 1990s.

Nor is it that you lose virility when you lose your hair. The line of power donuts in the octagon stretches from Matt Lindland to Kimbo Slice and beyond. Just because you take your hairstyling cues from George Jefferson doesn't mean you can't throw down.

No, the biggest thing we've learned from watching the Prodigy at his peak, as opponents tried and failed to take him down, is that fighting  -- like life -- is all about balance.

 

Toronto entrepreneur and Brazilan Jiu Jitsu practioner Dave Menceles reached a similar epiphany about balance last year when he and business partner Matt Soroka embarked on a pilgrimage to Brazil. Mornings they would train, afternoons they would relax and evenings they would socialize, and by the end of his six weeks in Brazil Menceles was intrigued by what he calls the "Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu lifestyle." Basically it's the ideal daily mixture of work, fun and working out, and when Menceles returned to Toronto he was determined to find the best way to promote this lifestyle here.

His solution hits the market this week.

Thursday marks the official launch of Jits Magazine with its website and initial press run of 10,000 copies. The magazine's purpose, Menceles says, is to explain and promote the "Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu" lifestyle he discovered in Brazil, and he hopes to reach a pool of potential readers that grows as BJJ's popularity does.

"It's all about finding a really great balance in your life and balancing training with the rest of your life," Menceles says. "Getting all the positive effects that training Jiu Jitsu has on the other parts of your life...There's a worldwide community of people who do BJJ and it's very supportive."

Have Menceles and his staff of roughly 30 volunteers enocuntered hurdles on the way to publishing their first issue? 

Of course they have.

Though Brazilian jiu-jitsu as ridden the UFC's rising tide to an unprecedented level of prominence, and though the number of dojos teaching BJJ has exploded in the last five years Menceles realizes that the martial art is still largely misunderstood.

To the uninitiated BJJ looks at best like a blend of judo and amateur wrestling, and at worst like a homoerotic fantasy run wild. Menceles is acutely aware of how people outside the BJJ community view the sport and hopes he can change peoples' perceptions.

"When I talk to people to people who aren't familiar with the sport and try to explain it they say 'so it's basically dudes rolling around on the ground with each other, right?'" Menceles says. "It's much, much more than that. It's really a beautiful sport."

But Menceles says his magazine doesn't aim to convert mainstream sports fans to BJJ faithful. Instead, the magazine speaks directly to people who already participate in the sport, and it's available for free at various at BJJ gyms, amateur tournaments and stores that sell martial arts gear.

For readers outside the GTA Menceles offers subscriptions, and says requests came trickling in even long before the magazine's official launch.

Menceles plans to keep the quarterly magazine's circulation steady at 10,000 for the first year, nudging it upward later as readership and revenue increase. 

 

For more information on Jits Magazine's premier issue click here.

And to follow the Star's Morgan Campbell  on twitter, click here

 

UFC Winners blend martial arts and sweet science

Before we headed to Cineplex Queensway Cinema to watch UFC 124 my good friend Andre Batson -- former Argo and Eskimo and mid-90s saviour of York University's football program -- highlighted something interesting about welterweight contender Josh Koscheck.

In my preview to the fight I mentioned that Koscheck held tight to his peroxide blond locks even even though some of the hairstyle's most famous proponents abandoned it years ago. But Batson pointed out that while Koscheck's hair isn't back to its natural colour it's darker than the platinum blond to which we'd grown accustomed, and that he looked less like Sisquo and more like Titans CB and notorious NFL instigator Cortland Finnegan.

And when the bell rang for Koscheck's title shot he fared about as well against Georges St-Pierre as Finnegan did in his punch-up with Texans receiver Andre Johnson.

Which is to say he got manhandled.

Beyond a takedown late in the first round Koscheck mustered zero offence against St-Pierre and his game plan seemed to have been crafted by Kimbo Slice:

Wade straight in throwing wild right hands and pray one lands.

Meanwhile St-Pierre demonstrated why he belongs at or near the top of pound-for-pound lists, controlling nearly every minute of every round with his superior size, strength, quickness and boxing skill.

St-Pierre spent part of his training camp sparring with Montreal-based pro boxers like Sebastien Demers and working with famed boxing trainer Freddie Roach -- and it showed. While Koscheck arrived in Montreal promising to score a knockout win in front of St-Pierre's hometown crowd, the champ set the pace with a stinging left jab. 

With the most basic weapon in a pugilist's arsenal he blunted Koscheck's headlong rushes, raised an ugly welt over his right eye and set up the takedowns that underscored his dominance.

In jabbing his way to a lopsided decision St-Pierre didn't just prove that he's the world's best welterweight by a wide margin. He reminded us all of an important fact that's often lost in the "Boxing vs MMA" debate.

Boxing is a martial art too.

And a very effective one in the right situations.

Nobody debates whether jiu jitsu and wrestling skills are essential to an MMA fighter's arsenal -- naturally, since 80 percent of all MMA matchups go to the ground. 

And muay thai's importance is a given, mainly because elbows, knees and leg kicks hurt (bad), and because the clinch allows you to combine striking and grappling to inflict some serious damage.

Yet whenever a boxer transitions to MMA it's seen as a final referendum on which sport -- and by extension fighting art -- is superior, even though boxer vs. mixed martial artist matchups prove only what we already know. Somehow we see the two disciplines as mutually exclusive simply because the two industries are going toe-to-toe over the pay-per-view dollars of mainstream sports fans.

Fighters know better.

Does that mean a background in boxing is the best foundation on which to build a mixed martial arts career?

Nope.

Somebody as accomplished in jiu jitsu as James Toney is in boxing would have lasted longer than two minutes against Randy Couture and even with little specific mma training might have even forced "The Natural" to sweat. 

But can an advanced education in boxing enhance a mixed martial artist's skill set?

Ask Joe (Daddy) Stephenson, who lunged chin first at Mac Danzig on the St-Pierre/Koscheck undercard and paid a painful price.

 

 

Boxing folks call that shot a check hook, and it could have come straight from Floyd Mayweather's playbook.

 

Or ask Koscheck, who took a thorough beating Saturday night because he had zero answers for the punch you learn on the first day of boxing class.

The left jab.

Now let's get this straight. GSP is far from a master boxer.

When baseball people talk about how fast certain baseball players are I'm always pointing out most of them aren't really fast -- they're just baseball fast. No denying guys like Ichiro and Chone Figgins are light years faster than their baseball peers but in the broader world of fast guys they're on the left end of the bell curve.

Far left.

So GSP is to boxing skill what Jose Reyes is to sprinting. He'll destroy most of us and hold his own with journeyman pros (like the guy getting flattened here) but an experienced pugilist nullifies that jab and hurts him bad.

But in his world he doesn't need to be Bernard Hopkins. He simply needs to sharpen a skill -- boxing -- that many mixed martial artists neglect.

He did exactly that in training for UFC 124 and his performance Saturday night hit observers like a revelation but it shouldn't have. The UFC's welterweight champ simply understands something a lot of his competitors are learning the hard way.

Boxing may be the sweet science, but its also a hell of a martial art.

 

END NOTES

* As mentioned above, I caught Saturday's fights at a movie theatre. First time for me and thanks to the folks at Cineplex for making it happen. If you're the type who likes his fights with a lot of beer and hollering then cinema viewing isn't for you. I like O'Doul's as much as the next guy, but I also enjoyed actually hearing the commentary for once. The polite applause after each fight will jar you, (especially if you're used to war cries in the sports bar) but you adjust to decorum. Besides, everybody loves a huge screen and surround sound. Can't replicate that experience at home or in a bar. So was the UFC experience different without alcohol and a mountain of chicken wings. Of course. A little. But would I watch in a theatre again? No question.

* From the "Find a way to watch it" file: this past Saturday's boxing. Between the double header on HBO and the bantamweight tournament on Showtime/Superchannel, I can't recall a single Saturday so saturated with boxing action. So I picked wrong on the Amir Khan/Marcos Maidana fight. So what? As I told folks on twitter, each of those four fights was more exciting than anything that went down at UFC 124. Even if you say you don't like boxing, if you're reading this blog you like action. And if you like action find a way to watch those fights. And if you're still not entertained you better go check for a pulse.

 

Follow the Star's Morgan Campbell on Twitter.

 

 

 

 

Will Koscheck's taunting bring out the best in St. Pierre?

Question:

Is trash talk still trash talk if you don't really mean it?

Ever since the UFC announced that Georges St. Pierre would headline UFC 124 by defending his welterweight title against Josh Kosheck, the challenger has been lobbing verbal bombs at the surprisingly patient champ.

In October Koscheck made plain that he didn't plan to lose to a "French guy."

*Koscheck casts himself as the anti-Canadian in the bout but he must have studied geography under Don Cherry if he thinks being from Quebec makes you "French." No more than being from Ontario makes me "English," but I digress.*

And if you watched the latest season of Spike TV's "The Ultimate Fighter" you saw Koscheck needle St. Pierre ceaselessly hoping, it seemed, to distract the champ from the task he'll face this Saturday. 

It's a tried and true tactic, both in the ring and in the octagon, and with this showdown taking place in St. Pierre's hometown Koscheck had the chance to revel in the heel role, use the crowd's animosity as fuel and make St. Pierre so angry he forgets his game plan.

But on Monday afternoon conference call to hype the fight Koscheck revealed he doesn't plan to take this villain act that far this week because it was, after all, just an act.

"The show needed some entertainment," said Koscheck, who enters Saturday on a three-fight win streak. "(The trash talk) was nothing more than that."

Oh.

Well St. Pierre says it's too late anyway.

The 29-year-old Montreal native says Koscheck's trash talk won't distract him when he enters the octagon. He intends to execute his plan, period.

But he acknowledged that Koscheck's verbal barrage motivated him in the lead-up to the fight, fueling him through grueling training session and pushing him to craft a fool-proof game plan.

"I prepared myself like I've never prepared myself before," said St. Pierre, who hasn't lost since April 2007. "This is the best Georges St. Pierre I've ever been. I'm sharper everywhere, I've been working on a lot of different things for this fight and I can't wait to show it to the public."

These two men first met in August 2007, while St. Pierre was working his way back to the welterweight title and Koscheck fighting to prove that he was a true mixed martial artist and not just a wrestler in an octagon. St. Pierre, stronger and more savvy, won that bout by unanimous decision.

But in the arms race that is top-flight MMA, each man has added plenty of weapons in the three intervening years.

Koscheck was an accomplished NCAA wrestler but St. Pierre controlled him in their first bout, so even as his striking and grappling skills have improved Koscheck says he spent this training camp polishing his wrestling skills.

St. Pierre, meanwhile, hit the mitts.

In the past St. Pierre says he would throw punches mainly to set up his nearly unstoppable takedowns, but after working with superstar boxing trainer Freddie Roach, St. Pierre says he'll enter Saturday's fight ready to throw knockout blows.

"Before I knew (Roach) I thought I knew boxing, but I found out that I didn't," St. Pierre said. "He corrected a lot of stuff. I feel...very confident.

Roach has said he expects St. Pierre to win by knockout Saturday but when St. Pierre co-signed on the prediction Koscheck couldn't resist countering with his own verbal jab.

"Working with Freddie Roach is all good...but Freddie Roach can't teach strengthening your chin," he said. "That's where I'm going to hit George and knock him out on Saturday."

 

Follow the Star's Morgan Campbell on Twitter.

 

Will Koscheck's taunting bring out the best in St. Pierre?

Question:

Is trash talk still trash talk if you don't really mean it?

Ever since the UFC announced that Georges St. Pierre would headline UFC 124 by defending his welterweight title against Josh Kosheck, the challenger has been lobbing verbal bombs at the surprisingly patient champ.

In October Koscheck made plane that he didn't plan to lose to a "French guy."

*Koscheck casts himself as the anti-Canadian in the bout but he must have studied geography under Don Cherry if he thinks being from Quebec makes you "French." No more than being from Ontario makes me "English," but I digress.*

And if you watched the latest season of Spike TV's "The Ultimate Fighter" you saw Koscheck needle St. Pierre ceaselessly hoping, it seemed, to distract the champ from the task he'll face this Saturday. 

It's a tried and true tactic, both in the ring and in the octagon, and with this showdown taking place in St. Pierre's hometown Koscheck had the chance to revel in the heel role, use the crowd's animosity as fuel and make St. Pierre so angry he forgets his game plan.

But on Monday afternoon conference call to hype the fight Koscheck revealed he doesn't plan to take this villain act that far this week because it was, after all, just an act.

"The show needed some entertainment," said Koscheck, who enters Saturday on a three-fight win streak. "(The trash talk) was nothing more than that."

Oh.

Well St. Pierre says it's too late anyway.

The 29-year-old Montreal native says Koscheck's trash talk won't distract him when he enters the octagon. He intends to execute his plan, period.

But he acknowledged that Koscheck's verbal barrage motivated him in the lead-up to the fight, fueling him through grueling training session and pushing him to craft a fool-proof game plan.

"I prepared myself like I've never prepared myself before," said St. Pierre, who hasn't lost since April 2007. "This is the best Georges St. Pierre I've ever been. I'm sharper everywhere, I've been working on a lot of different things for this fight and I can't wait to show it to the public."

These two men first met in August 2007, while St. Pierre was working his way back to the welterweight title and Koscheck fighting to prove that he was a true mixed martial artist and not just a wrestler in an octagon. St. Pierre, stronger and more savvy, won that bout by unanimous decision.

But in the arms race that is top-flight MMA, each man has added plenty of weapons in the three intervening years.

Koscheck was an accomplished NCAA wrestler but St. Pierre controlled him in their first bout, so even as his striking and grappling skills have improved Koscheck says he spent this training camp polishing his wrestling skills.

St. Pierre, meanwhile, hit the mitts.

In the past St. Pierre says he would throw punches mainly to set up his nearly unstoppable takedowns, but after working with superstar boxing trainer Freddie Roach, St. Pierre says he'll enter Saturday's fight ready to throw knockout blows.

"Before I knew (Roach) I thought I knew boxing, but I found out that I didn't," St. Pierre said. "He corrected a lot of stuff. I feel...very confident.

Roach has said he expects St. Pierre to win by knockout Saturday but when St. Pierre co-signed on the prediction Koscheck couldn't resist countering with his own verbal jab.

"Working with Freddie Roach is all good...but Freddie Roach can't teach strengthening your chin," he said. "That's where I'm going to hit George and knock him out on Saturday."

 

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