So I just got a chance to catch SpikeTV's "Countdown to UFC 79 Nemesis". It was mostly a good show except for the narrator, but as most UFC's tv shows it'll get better I'm sure. I think they really got some good footage, quotes and to a trained eye, like myself, lots of insight with some hints as to what may actually happen during UFC 79 this Saturday night on December 29th.
Georges St. Pierre had the best quote of the whole show: "I'm gonna hit him as hard as I can ON his head" - I love it! I really hope he does, even though I also like Matt Hughes most of the time, just not when it comes to St. Pierre.
When asked about the lovely incident immediately following St. Pierre's TKO loss to Matt Serra (who is a prick btw, but more on that later) when Matt Hughes together with Sean Sherk were laughing and hugging each other in cause they were both apparently very happy see Geoges lose in the biggest upset in MMA of 2007, St. Pierre seemed a bit ticked off but said "he laughed...what are you going to do...now
I'm gonna hit him as hard as I can ON his head". St. Pierre is such a respectful guy that he's just going to do his talking and laughing in the octagon.
St.Pierre's loss to Matt Serra was good for him in retrospect, he himself expressed how much it grounded him, made him re-focus on his training. He seemed to be really enjoying himself getting better at each of separate MMA disciplines, Muya Thai, Wrestling, Boxing and Brazilian JiuJitsu and combining them for a complete package. This approach has worked for him in the past.
By the way, did I mention, how smart he was to anticipate the boolsheet (wallid's famous words) of Matt Serra dropping out the fight with Hughes and being in shape and getting another crack at cementing his top contender status and beating MMA legend, again? Well, it was very smart of him to anticipate the fight falling through and being right there to jump on it. There are also numerous reports of St. Pierre looking veerry sharp in final days of training.
Matt Hughes...for the record, I really like the guy, he is what some may say a "straight-shooter" (
at fightlinker.com for example). He was great on the last season of Ultimate Fighter TV show opposing the short "kofee and kake" prick Matt Serra and now came across
some wonderful excerpts telling it like it is to Tim "The Lame-iac" Sylvia from his new book
Made in America: The Most Dominant Champion in UFC History
.
Back to the UFC 79 Nemesis Coundown. So it looked like he didn't have a good gym to train in or lots of good sparring partners, well except for current EliteXC middle weight champion, man no words, Robbie Lawler. Hughes's thinking when taking this fight was that St. Pierre didn't have too much time to train and would be unprepared, but as everybody in MMA knows now that wasn't true at all and Georges St. Pierre was very much prepared when he took the fight.
I gotta point out Joe Rogan's thinking that if Hughes has a desire to not to just avenge his loss to St.Pierre BUT re-establish himself again as the most dominant welterweight champion, we could, potentially see Hughes become that dominant champion again. Thing is, Hughes has been saying this whole past year that he's almost done with MMA as a fighter and generally portraying himself as not too motivated.
So I think Georges St. Pierre vs Matt Hughes will be an exciting and possibly lengthy fight with St. Pierre fighting smart and beating Hughes again.
Now,
Wanderlei Silva...his english improved quite a bit! So now we can actually understand his interviews. There are also lots of other good news for him from the show:
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his head does not look swollen any more and looks almost normal (no more juice?). He also generally looked leaner so his cardio has got to be great
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for the first time in his career he has a whole camp of trainers and sparring partners JUST FOR HIM. So all the personal attention he is getting will be great for him all around.
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the fact that Wanderlei trains at
Xtreme Couture gym and I'm sure will have Randy Couture's support as far as strategy and game plan
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I doubt the fight will go to the ground at all, but Silva's Brazian JiuJitsu coach is Andre Galvao. Awesome! This guy is a Ninja! Marcello Garcia type.
The bad news? Well he was knocked out twice in his last two fights, but I don't think it'll be a factor. Silva had a nice long break since then.
Chuck Liddell... good ol Chuck and Hackleman are singing the same ol tune of "Ima gonna knock him out". Chuck said he doesn't get bored with training but he does. His late night outings right before fight nights and same old routine isn't going to do him any good. Granted Hackleman does put together good game plans, but he also puts together bad ones and can't control Chuck very well if a first round of the fight isn't going well. We saw this with first Quinton Rampage fight in Pride, his first fight with Randy Couture and lately against Keith Jardine. So Hackleman saying that he didn't really see anything in Wanderlei Silva's game they could capitalize on, they're back to same old stuff and Chuck will be bored through training.
I think Wanderlei Silva has everything going for him to beat Chuck Liddell and put himself in the mix for the UFC's light heavyweight title.
More on the rest of the card of UFC 79 in the next post or two.
Oh, yeah, don't forget to check out Matt Hughes's new book Made in America: The Most Dominant Champion in UFC History. Should be a blast!
MMA NINJA
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