The striking truth with GSP - "Shilds is the best right now"

Dent · **Posted:** Sat Apr 24, 2010 8:41 am

Joe Ferraro | April 23, 2010

UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre continues to work a methodical game plan outside of the cage as he's involved in various projects to raise awareness not only about himself, but about the sport of mixed martial arts.

Having recently returned from his requested duties at UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi, GSP was up bright and early, alongside close friend David "The Crow" Loiseau, on the 3D shoot of "The Striking Truth", an in-depth documentary into the lives of two of the sports most popular athletes.

"They're going see a movie that's not only about fighting, it's about where we come from and what we have done to achieve where we are right now." St-Pierre said. "Its more about life than about mixed martial arts."

GSP raved about producer-director Steven J. Wong, who spent more than two years living alongside the champion, accumulating hours of footage. At times, Wong surely worried about invading the champion's personal space, but not according to St-Pierre. "Steven is like my best friend, and to be honest, it was like the camera wasn't even there."

Wong, alongside executive producer James Hergott and esteemed director Bobby Razak (affectionately known as "the Fedor of filmmaking"), expect the trailer for "The Striking Truth" to be released around the last week of April or early May, with exclusive behind-the-scenes footage being shown on "MMA Connected", starting April 26th.

In between shooting various scenes around Montreal and within the confines of the TriStar gym, St-Pierre discussed a variety of topics (and rumours) that see him as the focal point of many of MMA's biggest headlines.

His recent appearance at UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi was rumoured to be a calculated effort by the UFC to have their welterweight champion challenge Anderson "The Spider" Silva once the main event concluded. According to GSP, this was simply not the case.

"That's not true" he said. "My trip to Abu Dhabi was in the plan before. They needed a guy to do the Q&A for the UFC at the weigh-ins and Abu Dhabi is very far, so a lot of fighters couldn't make it because they had to get ready for their fights. Because I just fought I was one that they asked to go there and also because it was a new territory, they needed somebody like a title-holder to go there for the fans.

"I wasn't there to call out Anderson Silva. I don't call out people; I don't want to do this. It's disrespectful and when a guy wins a fight I think that's his moment of glory and there is no way I should step in, but talking about Anderson Silva I was there for the UFC for other purposes."

Unable to hide from the topic of an epic superfight with "The Spider", St-Pierre knows what this fight would mean to MMA, but it's not up to him to decide.

"It would mean the biggest fight in mixed martial arts. Right now, it's not my target. I'm not the kind of guy to call out people."

With St-Pierre working diligently on adding lean muscle to his frame in an effort to gain more weight, Silva, ironically enough, mentioned he would like to cut down to 170 lbs, perhaps creating another option for the UFC to put together this mega-fight.

But GSP noted: "Nobody (from the UFC) talked about a fight with me and Anderson Silva, it was not the plan. Nobody came up to me and tried to make this fight happen ... If he wants to come down to 170 to fight me, maybe I'm not going to have a choice. I'm the title holder and at 170, I want to fight the best."

While the UFC ponders when to put this fight on, Silva is coming off a less-than-stellar performance against Demian Maia, but St-Pierre, who sat cage-side during the bout, believes the criticism isn't necessarily justified.

"When I saw his fight, to tell the truth I'm probably the only one to say that the first three rounds were awesome," he said. "I mean it was a great display of Capoeira mixed with Muay Thai. It was amazing and of course the fourth round and fifth round were disappointing, but Anderson Silva was not the guy who was losing the fight. It was the other guy who was losing the fight, so it's on the other guy to put the pressure on, not Anderson Silva. So in a way, I think the blame is more on the other guy than on the guy who's actually winning the fight."

While the bout with Silva is likely a year or so away, the UFC is apparently holding a mini-welterweight tournament to determine who is next for the champion. Up first are Josh Koscheck and Paul Daley at UFC 113, while Jon Fitch and Thiago Alves are expected to lock horns at UFC 115. On the outside, it appears Martin Kampmann and Paulo Thiago are also in the mix.

But a seventh name might soon be added as a possible challenger, one that is actually one of GSP's favourite fighters to watch: Strikeforce middleweight champion, Jake Shields.

"He's a great submission fighter", St-Pierre said. "He's got great technique and takedowns. He's very good at not getting hit standing up, he's a perfect mixed martial artist and he's going to have a long career. He's a very smart guy and I have a lot of respect for this guy. I love watching his fights."

St-Pierre admitted he rarely watches MMA fights, but does make a point to only spend time watching bouts with fighters that can teach him something, and Shields is definitely one he pays close attention to.

"As a matter of fact, there's only a few guys I like to watch in mixed martial arts, to learn, and he's one of them. I like to watch Jake Shields, Anderson Silva, Mauricio Shogun, Lyoto Machida. I like to watch also Fedor and Sakuraba back in the day, the Gracies, but there are few other guys that I like watching for my own personal learning."

Shields is coming off an incredible performance vs MMA icon Dan Henderson, successfully defending his middleweight title in a bout that many gave the champion no shot at winning. But his performance was overshadowed by a post-fight brawl, which GSP believes many in the MMA world simply blew the incident out of proportion.

"Mixed martial arts haters will use that against us, there is no doubt about it, it was bad for the image of the sport," he said. "But of course, the people that know mixed martial arts, they know it's bad for the image, but it's not going to change people's mind."

While many point the finger at Jason Miller, whose entry into the cage was the catalyst that ignited the melee, GSP reflected back on a time where he was perceived by many as being disrespectful for doing something similar.

"I think it was bad that Jason Miller came into the ring," he said. "You know I made a mistake once when I told Matt Hughes I was not impressed with his performance and I'm never going to do that again. It's totally disrespectful.

"When somebody wins a fight, that's his moment of glory, you don't want to take it away from him. It's very disrespectful and even Dana asks me to go in the ring after a guy's fight and I feel so bad. You know, I do it because he's the boss, so like when Dan hardy beat Mike Swick I had to go in the ring. I was just in the corner; I don't want to call him out or do anything, because that's Dan Hardy's moment of glory and I don't want to take it away from him, so I hate doing that stuff. Sometimes I have to do it for promotion, but your never going to see me call out someone ever again."

It is expected that St-Pierre will return to action in September, pending how the UFC's welterweight title picture pans out, and whether or not the promotion plans on using their welterweight champion as a coach on season 12 of The Ultimate Fighter. Ironically enough, an assistant coach during this season's Ultimate Fighter is Jake Shields, who is assisting Chuck Liddell as they prepare the next star in the UFC's Middleweight Class.

All of this seems to be pointing to a GSP vs Shields title fight, one which St-Pierre would welcome at anytime.

"Shields is amazing. He's of course the guy to beat right now. He's fighting at 185 lbs right now, and he's dominating and beating everyone at 185, and he's (a natural) 170 lbs fighter. He's not only an amazing fighter, he's an amazing jiu-jitsu fighter."

We've all heard Georges St-Pierre say it before, but this time around, it's as if he believes there is only one man to beat, to guarantee that there is no doubt that he is the best welterweight in the game today.

"As a proud champion, I want to fight the best and Jake Shields is the best right now."

Source: http://www.sportsnet.ca/mma/2010/04/23/ ... ing_truth/

The striking truth with GSP - "Shilds is the best right now"

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