Posts Tagged ‘ufc’

Brock Lesnar: UFC Career 2008 - Present

Saturday, July 3rd, 2010

During UFC 77, it was announced that Brock Lesnar had reached a deal to fight with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). On February 2, 2008, Lesnar made his debut with the promotion in an event titled UFC 81:Breaking Point against former UFC Heavyweight Champion, Frank Mir. Lesnar secured an early takedown, but was deducted a point for hitting Mir on the back of the head. Following another takedown by Lesnar, Mir managed to secure a kneebar and force a submission at 1:30 of the first round. Due to the large size of his hands, Lesnar was wearing 4XL gloves for the fight, making him the second man in Nevada’s combat sports history to wear such gloves after Choi Hong-man.

At UFC 82, it was announced that former UFC Heavyweight Champion and UFC Hall of Fame inductee Mark Coleman would fight Lesnar at UFC 87:Seek and Destroy. Coleman was forced to withdraw from the fight due to a training injury, and Lesnar’s opponent was changed to Heath Herring. In the early seconds of the first round, Lesnar dropped Herring with a straight right. For the rest of the fight, Lesnar kept the fight on the ground and went on to win by unanimous decision.

Lesnar’s next opponent was Randy Couture for the UFC Heavyweight Championship at UFC 91:Couture vs Lesnar on November 15. Lesnar beat Couture via a technical knockout in Round 2, becoming the UFC Heavyweight Champion.

On December 27, 2008, at UFC 92, Frank Mir defeated Antnio Rodrigo Nogueira for the Interim Heavyweight title and was to face Lesnar for the Undisputed UFC Heavyweight Championship at UFC 98. Immediately after winning the Interim Heavyweight title, Mir found Lesnar in the crowd and shouted at him “You’ve got my belt.”

However, due to a knee injury to Mir, the title unification match with Lesnar that was originally slated to be the UFC 98 main event was postponed. The news broke during the broadcast of UFC 96 that the bout had been cancelled and was replaced by Rashad Evans vs. Lyoto Machida for the UFC Light-Heavyweight Championship.” Lesnar won the postponed rematch with Mir at UFC 100 on July 11, 2009, via technical knockout after dominating his opponent for the duration of the bout. The win earned Lesnar Beatdown of the Year honors from Sherdog for 2009. It’s an award he also shares with Anderson Silva after his win over Forrest Griffin. . During his post-match celebration, Lesnar flipped off the crowd who had been booing him for unsportsmanlike behavior including taunting the recovering Frank Mir. He made a disparaging comment about the PPV’s primary sponsor Bud Light, claiming they “won’t pay me nothin’”, promoting Coors Light instead. He then stated he might even “get on top of [his] wife” after the show. He would later apologize for his actions in his post-fight press conference, where he held a bottle of Bud Light.

In January 2009, Brock Lesnar signed a supplement endorsement deal with Dymatize Nutrition. A CD containing training footage of Lesnar was included with boxes of Dymatize Xpand and Energized Xpand.

On July 1, 2009 it was reported that the winner of the Shane Carwin vs. Cain Velasquez fight at UFC 104 would face Brock Lesnar in his second title defense on a date yet to be determined; however, the UFC then reconsidered the contendership bout and Lesnar was scheduled to defend his belt against Shane Carwin at UFC 106 on November 21.

Lesnar is now due to fight Carwin at UFC 116 for the UFC Heavyweight Championship.

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How George St Peirre Started His MMA Career

Friday, July 2nd, 2010

Georges St-Pierre was born May 19, 1981 in Saint-Isidore, Quebec, to Jim and Louise St-Pierre. St-Pierre had a rough upbringing , attending a school where others would steal his clothes and money. He started learning Kyokushin karate at age seven by his father and later by a Kyokushin Karate Master to defend himself against a school bully , Nikolas Mavrikos.

He took up wrestling and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu later when his Karate instructor past on and he also trained in boxing . Before he turned pro as a MMA artist he worked at a night club as a bouncer in the South Shore named Fuzzy Brossard and as a garbageman for six months to pay for his school fees and to buy his MMA gear such as his MMA Shorts and MMA Gloves

St-Pierre has trained with a wide variety of peoplein a large selection of gyms throught his MMA career . Prior to his fight with B.J. Penn at UFC 58, he trained at the Renzo Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy in New York City. St-Pierre received his brown belt in BJJ from Renzo Gracie on July 21, 2006. In September 2008, St-Pierre earned his black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Bruno Fernandes.

St-Pierre began training with Rashad Evans, Nathan Marquardt, Keith Jardine, Donald Cerrone, and other skilled MMA fighters at Greg Jackson’s Submission Fighting Gaidojutsu school in New Mexico. Some of Jackson’s students accompanied St-Pierre to Montreal to help prepare him for his fight at UFC 94 against B.J. Penn at the Tristar Gym, including Keith Jardine, Nathan Marquardt, Donald Cerrone and Rashad Evans. Georges’ intensity level and conditioning private instructor is Jonathan Chaimberg of Adrenaline Performance Centre in Montral. Georges’ Head Trainer is Firas Zahabi of Zahabi MMA, out of the Tristar gym. The pair have cornered all of St-Pierre’s most recentfights and stay on as his close friends. Presently, St-Pierre studies Muay Thai under Phil Nurse at the Wat in NY City .

St-Pierre always dreamed of becoming a UFC champion since watching Royce Gracie fight in 1993 at UFC 1. St-Pierre had his first unpaid bout when he was only 16 years old. He said, “When I won my first amateur (MMA) fight, I was 16 years old and I beat a guy that was 25. I was only a Kyokushin karate fighter and the guy I fought was a boxer. At that point my ground skilles weren’t the best , I had no idea about ground work .” St-Pierre won his fight by knockout , going low with several leg kicks and then going high with a head kick.

St-Pierre’s pro entry was against Branden MacFadden and the fight ended in a first round KO win by St-Pierre. In only his second fight, St-Pierre’s challenge for the UCC belt against Justin Bruckmann. He won by submission in the first round. He then went on to defend his title twice . The UCC aka worldwide Combat Challenge was then converted to TKO Major League MMA and he was called the champion. He fought on November 29, 2003 against Pete Spratt in a non-title bout at TKO 14. St-Pierre foiled Spratt with a rear naked choke in the very first round. Following his second win in the UFC, he faced Matt Hughes at UFC 50 for the vacant UFC Welterweight Championship. Despite a competitive performance against the much more experienced fighter, St-Pierre tapped out to an armbar with only 1 second remaining in the first round. The loss was the first of St-Pierre’s career and he has since admitted that he was in awe of Hughes going into the championship bout. Since then he has become one of the best fighters in the world. He gets paid by sponsors to have their logo on his MMA Shorts

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Royce Gracie In The UFC

Wednesday, June 30th, 2010

The Ultimate Fighting Championship

Brainchild of Rorion Gracie and Art Davie, the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) was an eight-man single-elimination tournament with very few rules that would award $50,000 to the winner. The basic premise was to find out how different styles of martial arts would fare against each other. Art Davie placed ads in martial arts magazines and sent letters to anyone in any martial arts directory he could find to recruit competitors for the event. Among the takers were kickboxer Patrick Smith, Pancrase fighter Ken Shamrock, and Savate world champion Gerard Gordeau.

While Art Davie felt that Royce’s older brother Rickson Gracie, who was stronger and more skilled than Royce, was the obvious choice as the Jiu-Jitsu representative, Rorion Gracie chose the younger Royce to represent the family style.

In his first match, Royce defeated journeyman boxer Art Jimmerson. He tackled him to the ground using a baiana (morote-gari or double-leg) and obtained the dominant “mounted” position, also pinning Jimmerson’s left arm around the boxer’s own neck. Mounted and with only one free arm Jimmerson conceded defeat, mostly due to frustration rather than submission.

In the semi-finals, Royce fought Ken Shamrock, who showed excellent grappling skills in his first-round submission win over Patrick Smith. Royce immediately rushed Shamrock, who sprawled effectively and got on top of Royce. Shamrock then grabbed Royce’s ankle and sat back to attempt the same finishing hold he used to finish his first match, but Royce rolled on top of him and secured a rear choke that forced Shamrock to tap the mat in submission. Shamrock has later stated that Gracie used his gi suit as a tool for ligature strangulation to perform the submission, protesting the fact that he was not allowed to wear his wrestling shoes because the event organisers had stated that it could be used as a weapon, feeling that the rules for the tournament were created to favor Gracie. Royce disputed the claim and said he had used a no-gi choke, meaning that there is no need to use his gi to apply this choke.

In the finals, Royce defeated Savate World Champion Gerard Gordeau (who broke his hand in the first round of the tournament against Teila Tuli), taking his opponent to the ground and securing a rear choke.

Over the next year, Royce Gracie continued fighting in the UFC, obtaining submission wins over fighters such as Patrick Smith, 250 pound (113 kg) European Judo Champion Remco Pardoel, and Kimo Leopoldo. His final UFC victory was in a match that lasted for 16 minutes (there were no rounds or time limits at the time), during which he was continuously pinned underneath 260 pound (118 kg) wrestler Dan Severn. To end the match, Royce locked his legs in a triangle choke for a submission victory. The match extended beyond the pay-per-view time-slot and viewers, who missed the end of the fight, demanded their money back.

Time limits were re-introduced into the sport in 1995 and MMA legend Ken Shamrock would become the first fighter to survive Royce Gracie’s submission attack and earn a draw. The match lasted for 30 minutes and a 5-minute overtime. Fans have been calling for a rematch ever since. The draw sparked much debate and controversy as to who would have won the fight had judges determined the outcome, or had there been no time limits, as by the end of the fight Royce’s right eye was swollen shut. However, the swollen eye was a result of a standing punch due to a sudden change of the rules in which both of the fighters were restarted on the feet. After this fight the Gracies left the UFC.

At UFC 45 in November 2003, at the ten year anniversary of the UFC, Ken Shamrock and Royce Gracie became the first inductees into the UFC Hall of Fame. UFC President Dana White said; “We feel that no two individuals are more deserving than Royce and Ken to be the charter members. Their contributions to our sport, both inside and outside the Octagon, may never be equaled. ”

Royce’s official UFC record when he left did include one loss. In the second round of UFC 3 Royce was to face fighter Harold Howard in the semi-finals. Although Royce came out to the ring, he was dehydrated as a result of his first round match against Kimo Leopoldo. The announcers of UFC 3 stated that Gracie’s shoulder had been hurt in the previous round. Before the Howard match began, Royce’s corner threw in the towel.

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The Legend Royce Gracie VS. Matt Hughes

Wednesday, June 30th, 2010

No one thought it would have ended the way it did. The legend went down.Looking back, one can’t be surprised with the result. In retrospect, it was inevitable.

Matt Hughes has been training for nearly a decade for a fight with Royce Gracie without even realizing it. When Royce Gracie unleashed Gracie Jiu Jitsu on the MMA world in UFC 1, no one knew what it was or how it worked. By UFC 2 people began to see that there was a pattern to what he was doing. The years that followed sealed Royce’s fate as a marked man.

Fighters were attempting to dissect Gracie Jiu Jitsu, but in reality they were analyzing Royce Gracie’s application of the fighting style. Without setting out to do so, every fighter that wanted to evolve and step up his game by learning to employ and defend Gracie Jiu Jitsu was training to fight Royce. It became Royce Gracie vs. the MMA world.

To Royce’s credit, he remained largely victorious in all of his bouts for years to come. But a man with a bulls eye on his back is bound to get hit once in a while. Matt Hughes was an on target bullet at UFC 60 where he bested the king and pulled out the most significant victory of his career.

But was it fair?

That’s hard to say. Matt Hughes is a tremendous athlete with dedication to his craft and an abundance of skill. Add to that palette an army of trainers teaching students how to defend and counter Royce Gracie’s every move, and Matt Hughe’s victory becomes somewhat destiny.

In theory, another Gracie would have had a much better shot at beating Matt Hughes. Take a look at Renzo Gracie’s incredible performance against BJ Penn, who has been touted as pound for pound the best fighter on the planet by many. Renzo fought tough and nearly pulled out a victory. His different style than Royce’s may have been enough for him to gain victory over Hughes.

Royce is possibly the greatest ever, but even a bullet can be dodged when its target has advanced warning.

A strategy for Royce, which under normal circumstances would seem absurd, would be to do the opposite of what some of the Gracie Jiu Jitsu tactics are. When he should place his body weight a certain way, if he were to suddenly shift the opposite way his opponent would be totally thrown off momentarily. And a moment is all a boa constrictor like Royce needs.

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TUF The Ultimate Fighter

Friday, June 18th, 2010

TUF is a reality television show and MMA tournament , originating from the U.S. , and produced by Spike TV and the Ultimate Fighting Championship . On this show, professional mixed martial arts fighters that have yet to make a name for themselves are situated in a house outside of Vegas , Nevada and contend against one and other for the title of TUF , winning a six-figure, multi-fight contract with the UFC .

For the first four seasons, prospect Ultimate Fighting Championship fighters were selected in two weight classes . The fighters are shared into two teams, irrespective of weight class , each team coached by a current Ultimate Fighting Championship star . The teams then compete (in a way which varies by season) to determine which team would have the right to pair one of their own fighters against an opponent of their choice in the same weight class to an MMA match , the loser being eliminated from tournament . At the end of a season, the last remaining fighters of weight category class are placed in a single-elimination tournament , where the title of TUF is given to the winner. Seasons five to seven, ten and eleven have only featured one weight category each.

The show features the daily training each fighter makes to train for competition and the interactions they have with each other living under the same roof. Day-to-day events on the show are taken care of by Ultimate Fighting Championship president Dana White.

The competiters get some very cool MMA Shorts to wear supplied by TapouT Shorts. If you haven’t heard of TapouT Shorts before you need to check them out!

With the exception of the season finales, fights on The Ultimate Fighter are approved by the Nevada Athletic Commission as exhibition matches and don’t count for or against a fighter’s professional record. This is done to keep the results from going public before the air date .

The winners of the first three seasons of The Ultimate Fighter competition, and certain runners-up depending on their performance in their competition finals, receive the touted “six-figure” contract to fight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship . These contracts are specifically three-year contracts with a guaranteed first year. Each year consists of three fights, the first year’s purse per fight consists of $12,000 guaranteed with a $12,000 win bonus (a maximum of $24,000 per fight), the second year’s purse per fight is $16,000 with a $16,000 win bonus (a maximum of $32,000 per fight) and the third year’s purse per fight is at $22,000 with a $22,000 win bonus (a maximum of $44,000 per fight). A TUF winner who goes 9-0 can earn $300,000 total on the contract, but only $150,000 is guaranteed for all three years if 9 fights are fought.1

Those that have not won the competition can still fight in the UFC . Their contracts however are not the same as the six-figure deal above.

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Boxing VS MMA

Wednesday, June 9th, 2010

I am more of a mixed martial arts fan than a boxing fan, but I do enjoy boxing every now and then. For me personally MMA is more exciting purely because there are more ways for a fighter to win the fight. So many times have I seen on forums and websites people arguing over which is the better sport and which fighters are tougher? The truth is toughness comes down to individuals, there are tough boxers just like there are tough MMA fighters. So the question remains; can boxing and mixed martial arts co-exist?

First of all let me address this ridiculous notion that ‘Boxing is dying man!’. No, it most certainly is not! Boxing has been around since around 2000 BC. It is one of the oldest sports in the world and is still one of the biggest sports in the world. Something that’s been around that long does not just die and wither away. Boxing is still more popular than MMA and has thrown up some great fights in recent times.

It has been great to watch a sport like MMA grow from a child that nobody wanted to the spectacle it is today; generating millions of dollars in TV revenue for fighters and Mr White. Mixed martial arts organizations are doing their best to rectify the mistakes made by boxing over the years, of which there are many, but in doing so they have found some new ones themselves. Neither of these sports are perfect, although mixed martial arts is still young and has time to adjust, whereas boxing is pretty much a fully grown adult. And as we all know adults find it more difficult to change.

So can boxing and MMA co-exist? My answer is yes, of course they can, In fact this competition may be exactly what the world of boxing needs. No longer does it have the monopoly on contact sports. There is a young buck in town and he’s eating well and growing fast. Either boxing jump starts itself or it just might find itself loosing more than just it’s old retired fighters to the sport of MMA. These sports can actually learn from each other and who knows? Maybe we’ll see a world championship boxing fight on the same event as a mixed martial arts title fight.

So I ask all you boxing fans to welcome the new sport and appreciate it for what it is. And to the MMA fans I say ‘Respect your elders’, boxing has been around a lot longer than you and will be with for many more years to come.

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Best Gloves For MMA

Tuesday, June 8th, 2010

MMA gloves or Mixed Martial Arts gloves are meant for mixed martial arts fighting. Martial arts require fighting with hands with your opponents. Therefore, protection of the fighter’s hands is mandatory and for that purpose, one needs a good pair of MMA gloves.

MMA gloves are made of leather or polystyrene and there is a thick layer of foam inside for resistance. They ensure complete protection of your hands and a good grip. Gloves protect the fingers, knuckles and wrist from injuries and bruises while fighting. Wearing gloves minimize the damage that can happen due to hard blows. Even during training sessions and championships, they play a role of protective shield for your hands. Always make sure that you wear gloves of appropriate size. They should not be loose or tight because proper movement of fingers is necessary.

A good glove also acts as a good palm cushion as it guards your palm during palm strikes. The techniques of martial arts are of course helpful but good gloves assist you in super ceding your opponent. The gloves reduce the actual damage caused by punches. Thus, when you wear gloves, your opponent is more likely to be knocked out than get hurt.

Be very cautious while choosing gloves for yourself. For that, it is important for you to learn the structure of a MMA glove. The text below helps you to know your glove better.

1. The most important portion in any glove is the KNUCKLE GUARD. If a glove cannot protect your knuckles then it is better not to waste money and fight barehanded. This region of the glove absorbs majority of the force of the punch.

2. Second important portion is the PALM COVER. This must be made of flexible and durable material as your palm stretches edge ways when you hit with it.

3. Last but not the least is WRIST GUARD. This part must be made of tough material with foam covering the inside. This prevents the wrist from being twisted in awkward angels.

Professional fighters use many brands. Four of the best brands are listed below:

1. Hayabusa: their latest design Y volar palm design offers the best fit and flexibility.

2. Fairtex: the sparring gloves are famous for they have over sized knuckle padding with pre-curved foam that offers complete security and comfort. Another of their design that is equally famous is the one meant for spirited fights. It is the competition gloves of leather with open palm design and flexibility. Fairtex is known for durability and quality.

3. Truth Fight Wear: They have gained extreme fame in the competition and training gloves category. Their design has soft piping around the knuckles and an open thumb that minimizes the irritation. Large Velcro wrist straps offer greater security and grip.

4. Everlast: this brand is probably the oldest brand in this regime. The gloves they sell are of supreme quality. Their glove has open palm design, stitching on fingers, proper padding and safe wrist strap.

We have to fight with hands with our rivals in Martial Arts. And we use punches while fighting with our opponents in Martial Arts like Karate, Taekwondo and Muay Thai. So we need to protect our hands when we fight with our opponents. And that problem can be solved with good quality types of gloves known as MMA Gloves.

If you are going to take part in any kind of Martial Arts, I would suggest you to chose a good quality MMA Gloves and don’t care too much about the prices of the gloves. A pair of glove can be costly and I would suggest you to buy additional MMA Gloves you need to use them in some situations where your first glove pair is missing or broken.

We use gloves in some other sports as well like boxing. So I would suggest you to buy different gloves for different purposes, MMA gloves for punches and bag gloves for punching bags. So it does not make any sense to use the same pair of gloves for different purposes as each glove pair is made for different purposes. If you use your gloves with proper care, you can increase their life to many years. Every time you use them, do some cleaning work and place them to their proper place.

While buying any kind of glove, you should check their comfort and safety level. All major fighters use branded gloves made of polystyrene and there is a layer of foam as well inside them. And gloves with double stitch are safer and their life is supposed to be longer. Padded gloves are supposed to be safer and we need to choose those gloves with free movement of fingers. So, make sure that you use a good pair of gloves while fighting and make use of all the information provided to you in the above text.

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How The UFC Began

Friday, June 4th, 2010

Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) was originally launched in the United States by the “first family of Jiu-Jitsu.” They brought together the very best martial artists from the various disciplines to compete against each other on a level playing field. The goal was to determine which of the disciplines was best. Could a boxer beat a wrestler? Could a kung fu champion beat a karate master?

The first Ultimate Fighting Championship(R) event was held at McNichols Arena in Denver, Colorado in 1993. The undersized Royce Gracie beat bigger, stronger, and faster opponents with his Gracie Jiu-Jitsu to win the tournament. The fledgling sport became an overnight sensation.

The shows became must see TV for fans, but in the early years, the lack of state regulation and significant set of rules led to the show being taken off cable television. After a series of relatively dark years, the Las Vegas based Zuffa LLC took over the company in 2001. They implemented a set of unified mixed martial arts rules, and suddenly MMA was no longer a spectacle, but a legitimate sport.

As the sport has evolved, so have the athletes, and they well know that one particular style will not work in competition on a consistent basis. This means Mixed Martial Artists must learn a variety of martial arts including boxing, wrestling, kickboxing, and Jiu-Jitsu to effectively spar with their opponents.

Under the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts, athletes compete for three five-minute rounds, with championship matches waged over five five-minute rounds. Scoring, like boxing, is done on a ten-point system, with the winner of the round receiving ten points and the loser nine points or less. Unlike boxing, MMA matches are scored not only for effective striking attacks, but for ground fighting effectiveness, submission and take down attempts and defense, as well as ring generalship.

Bouts end via knockout, referee, corner or doctor stoppage, or submission. When a bout ends by submission, the fighter either verbally or physically “taps out,” signaling that he has had enough.

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How Big Is MMA Clothing?

Sunday, May 23rd, 2010

MMA has literally sky rocketed in popularity over the last few years! Going from small shows that they couldn’t even fill and they weren’t televised either! They have gone from that to a multi-million pound business, showing live sold out events on Pay Per View. It’s really an incredible turn of events for mixed martial arts. It’s also the fastest growing sport in the country right now! Impressive right!

Due to MMA massively increased popularity it has created a huge demand for MMA clothing! Just like any other big sport in the country, people want to support their team! In this case people want to support there favorite fighter. So many companies seen this coming and jumped on the band wagon designing quality MMA Clothing for fans. So know you are able to get a t-shirt of just about any fighter you want. Fighters have also been smart when coming to MMA clothing as they have invested some of there own hard earned cash and started there own clothing line. This has been a great way for fighters to get some extra income from the sport.

There is just about every type of clothing you can think of out there! There is Jackets, MMA t-shirts, MMA shorts, MMA shoes and even MMA hats! It’s turning out to be a huge business! And with the sport increasingly getting bigger each year the demand for quality MMA Clothing is sure to continue strongly. Did you know that there has even been movies with MMA fighters in them? That’s right, you can now see some of your favorite fighters on the Big screen. Take “Rampage” Jackson for an example he is starring in the new A-Team Movie.

There is a few leading companies out there when it come to MMA clothing, the biggest that comes to mind has to be TapouT! They are a very well known organization providing excellent products. They have been in this business since the begging, they would turn up to these small shows and try and sell there TapouT t-shirts out of the back of there cars. Now though they are a multi-million dollar company and a huge sponsor of the UFC and it’s fighters! There products are known world wide in the MMA field. Then you have the MMA clothing company called affliction they currently make around $125 Million a year! This is huge numbers and it’s only from one company!

So as you can see the MMA Clothing line is a big part of the MMA business world. And it will be for some time to come!

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How George St Peirre Started His MMA Carrer

Saturday, May 8th, 2010

Georges St-Pierre was born May 19, 1981 in Saint-Isidore, Quebec, to Jim and Louise St-Pierre. St-Pierre had a difficult childhood, attending a school where others would steal his clothes and money. He started learning Kyokushin karate at age seven by his father and later by a Kyokushin Karate Master to defend himself against a school bully, Nikolas Mavrikos.

He took up wrestling and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu after his karate teacher died and also trained in boxing. Before turning pro as a mixed-martial artist, St-Pierre worked as a bouncer at a Montreal night club in the South Shore called Fuzzy Brossard and as a garbageman for six months to pay for his school fees.

St-Pierre has trained with a number of groups in a large variety of gyms throughout his fighting career. Prior to his fight with B.J. Penn at UFC 58, he trained at the Renzo Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Academy in New York City. St-Pierre received his brown belt in BJJ from Renzo Gracie on July 21, 2006. In September 2008, St-Pierre earned his black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under Bruno Fernandes.

St-Pierre began training with Rashad Evans, Nathan Marquardt, Keith Jardine, Donald Cerrone, and other skilled MMA fighters at Greg Jackson’s Submission Fighting Gaidojutsu school in New Mexico. Some of Jackson’s students accompanied St-Pierre to Montreal to help prepare him for his fight at UFC 94 against B.J. Penn at the Tristar Gym, including Keith Jardine, Nathan Marquardt, Donald Cerrone and Rashad Evans. Georges’ strength and conditioning coach is Jonathan Chaimberg of Adrenaline Performance Centre in Montral. Georges’ Head Trainer is Firas Zahabi of Zahabi MMA, out of the Tristar gym. The two have cornered all of St-Pierre’s most recent bouts and remain as his close friends. Currently, St-Pierre trains in Muay Thai under Phil Nurse at the Wat in New York City.

St-Pierre had dreamed of becoming a UFC champion since watching Royce Gracie fight in 1993 at UFC 1. St-Pierre had his first amateur bout when he was only 16 years old. He said, “When I won my first amateur (MMA) fight, I was 16 years old and I beat a guy that was 25. I was only a Kyokushin karate fighter and the guy I fought was a boxer. At the time my ground skills were very poor, I didn’t know anything on the ground.” St-Pierre won his fight by knockout, going low with several leg kicks and then going high with a kick to the head.

St-Pierre’s pro debut was against Branden Macfadden and the fight ended in a first round to-knockout win by St-Pierre. In only his second fight, St-Pierre’s challenge for the UCC belt against Justin Bruckmann. He won by an arm bar in the first round. He then went on to defend his title twice. The UCC aka Universal Combat Challenge was then converted to TKO Major League MMA and he was named the champion. He fought on November 29, 2003 against Pete Spratt in a non-title bout at TKO 14. St-Pierre defeated Spratt with a rear naked choke in the first round. Following his second win in the UFC, he faced Matt Hughes at UFC 50 for the vacant UFC Welterweight Championship. Despite a competitive performance against the much more experienced fighter, St-Pierre tapped out to an armbar with only 1 second remaining in the first round. The loss was the first of St-Pierre’s career and he has since admitted that he was in awe of Hughes going into the title bout.

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