Wild Card helps GSP grow in spades -- ESPN

By Josh Gross, ESPN.com

HOLLYWOOD -- Freddie Roach, the estimable boxing trainer, has staked out a place behind the front desk of his jam-packed Wild Card Boxing Club where he can survey the lay of the land. Monthly membership dues, coming in at a reasonable $50 a pop, are in need of collection, so the fact that Roach's boxing cathedral is cramped quarters on a Monday should sit well with him. Yet the 51-year-old coach appears anxious, and quietly suggests it would be better if this sweatbox situated above a laundromat wasn't as busy as it is.

Roach wants to work distraction-free with UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre, who is in town for the ESPYs ceremony and will spend three days working with the Hall of Fame trainer. The gym's populace, a gender-neutral potpourri, recognized the mixed martial artist's arrival, though that did little to distract from the syncopated percussion of the place. The ring, ring, ring of round timers stop for no one, and almost immediately upon greeting St. Pierre, Roach twines the 30-year-old Canadian's weapons of choice with tape and gauze.

Outside of the man who trains Manny Pacquiao, St. Pierre was the biggest star in the room, and over the next hour patrons took their turn sizing up the UFC champion's skills and presence. Wild Card is not a joint to feel star struck in, even if that means ignoring St. Pierre sweating it up near a large black-and-white portrait of himself hung alongside images of Roach and his prized Filipino pupil. Still, there were several moments during the hour when people gathered and watched. Some are even reprimanded for taking photos and shooting video inside the gym -- a big-time no-no.

The UFC champ looked muscular and confirmed to Roach that he's currently walking around at 190 pounds. It took a couple of turns on the pads before St. Pierre (22-2) pumped out his jab the way he wanted. Soon enough, though, Roach had him unloading combinations and thinking about what it would take to evade Nick Diaz's straight-ahead style.

"He has success with that if you let him," Roach said of Diaz, who is regarded among MMA's best boxers. "But there's definitely ways to take that away from him."

"He's very good at teaching people to hit and not getting hit," St. Pierre said of Roach. "You can fight with less damage and create damage on your opponent.

"When I come to learn some stuff I have an empty cup. I don't come here try to prove to people that I know stuff. I come here and I'm ready to learn. In an environment with Freddie Roach, the best coach with the best boxers, I'm a very humble guy when I'm here.

Time spent in Southern California is time well spent for GSP, who picks things up there that he feels aren't taught anywhere else.

"He's [Roach] a very clever guy. He has a system that he bases his techniques on. He has a protocol that he follows. It's very interesting. I never learned boxing like this."

Because of Diaz's frame and style -- he's a long, southpaw, volume puncher -- Roach expects an expanded role as St. Pierre prepares for the Oct. 29 fight. Ideally Roach said he wants to spend 10 straight days "working on technique and making sure everything is exact." Since he started working with mixed martial artists a few years ago, Roach claims to have refined the way he teaches boxing to account for differences between the two sports.

The key, he surmised, is distance.

"Georges is learning distance right now," Roach said. "He's got much more power in his shots because he's looser. Georges was very tight when he came to me because he's very strong and was a little bit on the slow side, I would say. But now his speed is picking up quite a bit because he's a lot looser and fluid with punches. He's more natural. That's coming. It's not perfected yet, but it's getting better all the time.

Whatever I can do to help Georges I will because I like guys who want more knowledge. That's what he does. He absorbs it and it works."

The way in which St. Pierre learns, Roach said, reminds him of Pacquiao.

"They're the type of guys if you show 'em a move once, tomorrow they'll have that perfected because they go home and practice that in the mirror," the trainer said. "I laugh sometimes because I know I might show it one time, I'll leave it alone one time, then bring it back after a while just to see if it's remembered.

"It's the discipline a world champion has to have. That's the difference between good fighters and great fighters."

Josh Gross covers MMA for ESPN.com. Follow him on Twitter at JoshGrossESPN.

Source: sports.espn.go.com

Manny Pacquiao a Fan of Jon Jones, BJ Penn and Bruce Lee -- 5thRound

By Tom Ngo, 5thRound.com

UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre starred in the biggest mixed martial arts show to ever hit North America this past weekend. This Saturday, it will be Manny Pacquiao’s turn to take center stage and entertain fight fans.

So why is an MMA news website writing about ‘the other’ combat sport, you ask? Well, it appears Pacquiao is finally starting to become a fan of badass barefoot action.

Although he and St-Pierre have shared gym time while training under Freddie Roach’s watchful eye, Pacquiao mentioned future UFC Hall of Famer BJ Penn and current UFC light heavyweight king Jon Jones as his two favorite mixed martial artists.

“Pac-Man” has appreciated Penn’s ability as a lighter weight fighter to successfully hop divisions to capture titles, while he agrees with the rest of the world that there is something a little bit more special about the man they call “Bones.”

“I love his athleticism and the way he conducts himself,” Pacquiao told 5thRound of Jones.

Pacquiao also expressed great admiration for Bruce Lee. UFC president Dana White has long-considered him as “The Godfather of MMA” because Lee was preaching the importance of learning multiple disciplines long before the UFC became a gleam in Rorion Gracie’s eyes.

Shane Mosley challenges Pacquiao for his WBO welterweight belt tomorrow night inside the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

Don’t forget to check out their official MySpace pages (Manny “Pac-Man” Pacquiao and “Sugar” Shane Mosley) for exclusive content leading up to Saturday’s pay-per-view broadcast. The social media giant is also offering up “Manny Pacquiao Myspace Hijack,” where fans can learn more about Pacquiao’s favorite music, movies and interests.

Fanboys can also enter for a chance to win a pair of signed gloves from the Pac-Man himself.

Source: 5thround.com

Koscheck brings out St. Pierre’s passion -- Yahoo! Sports

By Kevin Iole, Yahoo! Sports

MONTREAL – For six months, Georges St. Pierre has wanted to erupt, to lash out, to tell the world how sick and tired he’s been of Josh Koscheck.

If you poke a caged lion with a stick, you always have to be careful the lion doesn’t get free and maul you. You can be sure, as he spent a month-and-a-half in Las Vegas with Koscheck in the summer filming the reality series, “The Ultimate Fighter,” that there were plenty of times that St. Pierre wanted to maul Koscheck.

Koscheck hadn’t left the Octagon following his victory over Paul Daley at UFC 113 in May when he began the torrent of trash talk about St. Pierre. Then, for six weeks in Las Vegas, he poked and prodded St. Pierre, hoping to get a rise out of him. He’s continued the verbal onslaught ever since.

St. Pierre is a man who values his image nearly above all else. The thought of rolling around on a floor, brawling with Koscheck, is abhorrent to him.

The taunts and pranks didn’t go unnoticed by St. Pierre, who will defend his title against Koscheck on Saturday in front of a UFC-record crowd – expected to top 23,000 – in the main event of UFC 124 at the Bell Centre.

During the show, St. Pierre was, as he always seems to be, calm and in control. He responded with a grin and a shake of his head, largely ignoring Koscheck despite a fire that raged inside of him that told him he ought to shut his foe’s mouth for good.

Finally, on Wednesday at a workout for the media and again on Thursday at the final news conference, St. Pierre opened a window to his soul. He displayed a passion he’s rarely shown publicly before, something contrary to his carefully crafted, gentlemanly image.

As the news conference ended Thursday, St. Pierre was asked about a comment he’d made earlier, in which he said he’d be done with Koscheck after Saturday. St. Pierre won a decision over the former NCAA Division I national wrestling champion at UFC 74 in 2007 in a non-title fight. He pointed out that if he prevails again in Saturday’s title fight, Koscheck figures to be in his rear-view mirror forever. “I’m doing this job, because I want to be the best,” St. Pierre said. “I don’t want to be number two. I want to be number one. I’ve always been like this. And I don’t want to be just number one, I want to be the greatest. That’s my main goal. When I do something, I want to be the best of the best. Now I’m fighting Josh Koscheck and I fought him before. People say, ‘Oh, the pressure is on you. You’re in Montreal.’ It’s true. I’m in Montreal, but I am at my best when I’m fighting in my hometown. But also, if I win against Josh Koscheck, when I beat him, that’s going to be the end of it. It would be two times I beat him.

“If he has the same mentality as me, Josh Koscheck, he’ll have to reconsider his career. If he wants to be the best, after he loses two times to me, it’s going to take a long time again before he goes for the title. Maybe, never again. He’ll have to climb up the ladder a long time. I’m going to beat him on Saturday night and that will be the end of it. I’m not going to talk about him for a long, long time and I’m going to feel very happy.”

He spoke passionately, through clenched teeth, obviously speaking with his heart as much as he was with his mind.

St. Pierre is arguably the UFC’s most popular fighter, so in demand that UFC president Dana White dared to suggest that St. Pierre is more popular in his native country than NHL Hall of Famer Wayne Gretzky. Gretzky is merely the greatest player in hockey history and the Canadian Press Athlete of the 20th Century.

White later amended his comment to indicate he meant St. Pierre is more popular on a global basis, but the point was made: People love the guy, and not just in Canada.

He made an appearance in the Philippines and the massive turnout made it seem as if Manny Pacquiao had stopped on the street corner. St. Pierre took calls on an Albuquerque, N.M., radio station on Wednesday and so many people attempted to get through, the telephone lines crashed. He signed autographs at the UFC Fan Expo and people stood in line for hours to get a few seconds of personal time in front of him.

“It’s really incredible, when you think about it, that people were willing to give up the better part of their day to stand in a line for his autograph in order to get about 10 seconds of his time,” his manager, Shari Spencer, said.

Spencer has helped him build his brand and land him endorsements from blue chip companies like Under Armour, Gatorade and Affliction.

The brand is everything to St. Pierre, who said he’s attempted to pattern his behavior after Gretzky. Gretzky is arguably the most dominant athlete in team sports history and he was a great ambassador for hockey from the day he first stepped onto the ice until his last day as coach of the Phoenix Coyotes.

Similarly, St. Pierre has attempted to maintain an equally wholesome image and avoid some of the unsavory stereotypes that often are associated with the fight game. That’s why he continually bit his tongue when nearly everyone else watching the reality show wanted to see him lose it and haul off and give Koscheck his comeuppance.

“To tell you the truth, there were many times (when Koscheck taunted me) that I had something to say in my head, but because of my brand, because of who I am and because of the way I want to portray myself, I didn’t say anything bad,” St. Pierre said. “But sometimes, I said it to my friends and they were laughing. People don’t know what’s happening in my head. Of course, I’m a good guy on camera, because I take my business very seriously. For me, when I’m in front of the camera, it’s a business. The way I dress and everything, it’s a business, it’s professional.

“I try to portray myself like Wayne Gretzky, Michael Jordan. Of course, I’m a human being and I have some bad thoughts in my head sometimes. I’m human, I have some bad ideas, but when I’m in front of the camera, it’s business and when it’s business, I think of my business and my brand.”

Koscheck, who seemed tense and disinterested at Wednesday’s media workout, clearly has tried to anger St. Pierre in order to affect the way he fights. St. Pierre, though, was on to the game early and wouldn’t fall for it.

St. Pierre said he’d be disappointed if he won by decision, rather than finishing Koscheck, but said he’s not going to be baited into a slugfest. It’s all about maintaining control in St. Pierre’s world.

“I’m going to fight smart and methodical,” St. Pierre said. “Of course, the crowd’s going to be there and that’s what Koscheck wants. Koscheck wants me to lose my temper. He wants me to fight like an idiot and lose my temper, because that’s how he can beat me. I don’t think skill-wise, he can beat me. In boxing, the guy who is the better boxer, he wants to box. The guy who is not as good as the other guy, he wants to brawl. When you brawl, it’s like flipping a coin. That’s what he wants me to do, to go in there and lose my mind. But that’s exactly what I’m not going to do. “I have a lot of tools in my bag. If he stuffs one takedown or two, I don’t mind that. I can knock him out standing up. I can beat him on the floor. I can do whatever I want.”

Pretty much, that’s true. He’s nearly a deity in Canada, though strangely, he’s more popular outside of his native Quebec because the Francophiles aren’t into fighting as much as the English-speaking population. He’s centered his business interests in the U.S., because it’s where most of the brands he’s going to be affiliated with are located, and because it will leave him a refuge at home in Quebec where he can get away from some of the maddening crowds.

It says something about the character of the man that he’s on display nearly every hour of every day, but he has the control of his emotions and doesn’t crack.

If White was growing fighters in a Petri dish, he couldn’t have grown one to be a better representative of his business than he’s gotten in St. Pierre.

“We’re fortunate not only to have him representing our company, but also to have him as an ambassador for the sport of mixed martial arts,” said Tom Wright, the UFC’s director of Canadian operations. “He’s one of our global icons. Clearly, one of the biggest draws we’ve ever had. Certainly, in this country, when we look at pay-per-view sales, they go along like this and all of a sudden, we see this major blip that comes along when GSP fights. People just love him, not just here but truly, around the world. He’s the kind of guy you want representing your country and the sport. He’s so good, it’s almost like he’s too good to be true.”

St. Pierre waves off comparisons to Gretzky and said he hasn’t accomplished nearly in MMA what Gretzky did in hockey – yet.

So for now, it’s OK to refer to him as the Wayne Gretzky of MMA.

But don’t you get the idea that if St. Pierre keeps this up, someday in the not-too-distant future, some Canadian father will be telling his son about Wayne Gretzky and will refer to him as “The Georges St. Pierre of hockey?” It probably won’t happen. But the fact that it might tells you all you need to know about St. Pierre.

Source: sports.yahoo.com