ZUFFA’s most recent PPV outing has met with, at best, lukewarm support.  I believe the word “crap” has popped up more than once.  In keeping with the Total-MMA commitment to balanced journalism (a commitment which I, in fact, just made up), it falls to me to present a slightly different view.  St. Pierre-Serra 2 was not a complete waste of your time and money.  No fewer than ten quality things came from that broadcast.  To wit:

10.  Rich Franklin’s sweet armbar escape.

For a guy who isn’t supposed to have much in the way of ground skills, that was a sweet little move.  I, for one, missed the Joe Rogan Experience and had to exclaim “That’s high level jujitsu!” to myself.  But it had nothing on…

9.  GSP’s Superman punch/leg kick combo.

As has already been said on our forums, that’s some wacky video game shit right there.  You might be forgiven for missing it in light of the complete beatdown being administered, but, seriously, damn.  This is why I stopped watching pro wrestling entirely - MMA has progressed to the point that I can see borderline impossible techniques performed under competitve circumstances.

8.  Someone besides me is talking about getting Nate Quarry out of fighting and into announcing.

Granted, that person is Nate Quarry.  Still, dudes with severe spinal injuries should probably not be involved in combat sports.  Quarry seems like a good guy, and I’d rather not see him paralyzed.  Can’t he do a Fight Night or something?  Please?

7. We should never see Kalib Starnes on PPV again.

Seriously, what was that all about?  Starnes has never impressed in previous outings, and this should be the final nail in his coffin as a PPV performer.

6.  Or Travis Lutter.

Don’t make weight once, shame on you.  Don’t get in shape twice, see ya later.

5.  Michael Bisping is that much closer to a middleweight title shot.

Wherein Anderson Silva will kill him dead.  But with two-time Silva victim Franklin and boring non-English speaking Okami the closest things to top middleweights available on the ZUFFA roster, you take what you can get.  The fight could be a decent semi-main, or main event in London and draw a decent house.

4.  I don’t really have a #4.

Maybe just nine good things happened.  Oops.

3.  The 170lb title has now been defended in five countries, more than any other major title.

Pat Miletich defended the then-lightweight belt in Brazil (vs. Mikey Burnett) and Japan (vs Kenichi Yamamoto), in addition to his US title defenses.  Matt Hughes and Carlos Newton added Great Britain to the list.  No other major MMA belt has as great a claim to being a true “world” title.

2.  Matt Serra’s presumptive return to the 155lb ranks where he belongs.

I don’t have strong feelings about Serra as a person one way or the other, but I like him as a fighter.  As a lightweight fighter.  Hey, if you’re a professional fighter and you get a shot at a world title, you take it.  Serra hit the fadeaway grandslam hail mary Rocky mixed sports metaphor jackpot in the first GSP fight and got to hold the belt for a few months, and good on him.  Now let him go fight Frankie Edgar, Kenny Florian, Roger Huerta, and other guys his own size. 

1.  The best man finally holds the welterweight title.   

This is a biggie.  Anyone committed to MMA’s credibility wants the best fighter in a division recognized as “world champion” by the sport’s premier company.  No one doubts GSP is that man.  Without meaning to denigrate Matt Serra as a fighter, he was a fluke champion and we all knew it.  Let’s start lining up challengers for the real champ now. 

I’m not a betting man. (If you are, Iain has a fine column with you in mind.)

So on the night of a UFC, I like to consult the “experts” just for fun and not for profit. Tonight’s UFC, emenating from the childhood home of Matt Serra’s hero Arturo “Thunder” Gatti, and that guy in the picture above, is no exception. Here’s what I found on the net when I should have been preparing for a wedding today:

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I’m worried about my Canadian friends. While Pete Sell and others are questioning Georges St. Pierre’s mental health, it’s his fans I’m concerned about. Everyone is whispering about his chin. He got knocked out by the lightly regarded Matt Serra. And the rematch has St. Pierre backers more than a little nervous.

Relax. Remember after the second Matt Hughes fight when everyone was confident that St. Pierre was a world beater, a modern Frank Shamrock who would grow into the sport’s best fighter? He’s not that guy anymore. He’s better. And his trainer says his chin is rock solid.

“Oh my God yeah. That shot that really hurt him hit him on the back of the head,” Greg Jackson said. “It never hit him on the chin. He’s spars at the Grant Brothers gym in Montreal with these World Champion boxers and they nail him. They nail him. He has a really good chin. He just got caught. Keith Jardine actually has a really good chin too. But he can get caught as well. Anybody can get caught if you’re hit in the right spot.”

The myth of the MMA Superman has been exposed many times. At the dawn of the decade both PRIDE and the UFC had fighters that were deemed too hard headed to be KO’ed. But Kazayuki Fujita was stopped by Wanderlei Silva. And Wesley “Cabbage” Correira has been stopped a number of times, most notably by Tank Abbott. The tiny 4 OZ gloves make it impossible for anyone to be an unstoppable Tyson-esque killing machine. They magnify the puncher’s chance significantly. So while it remains possible for Matt Serra, for anyone, to beat Georges St. Pierre, it isn’t very likely.

“What Georges did in that fight was, he bent down at the waist and got hit right behind the ear,” Jackson said. “And it knocked his equilibrium off and he never really recovered from it. Georges has a great chin and I’m sure Matt Serra’s going to hit him at some point and everybody will be able to see it.”

The St.Pierre that meets Serra for the second time will be a different fighter. He’s training full-time now at Jackson’s gym in New Mexico and it’s been the perfect fit for St. Pierre as a person and as a fighter. When he steps into the Octagon this time, he’ll be ready.

“I was there for the (first) Matt Serra fight and I could see that he wasn’t there mentally. He had partied too much and he wasn’t focussed,” Jackson said. “There’s a certain confidence that Georges has when he’s ready and he didn’t have it that night. He was nervous. But it wasn’t my place to say anything. I wasn’t the lead guy in the corner where the metal meets the meat. After that fight he wanted me to be the lead guy, so we’ve done Koscheck, Hughes, and now Serra again.”

The training at Jackson’s is perfect for St. Pierre. He was working with mostly Canadian training partners in the past, but as is common for big fish in small ponds, was having trouble finding people who could push him to the limit. Jackson will push St. Pierre. Physically and mentally. When he arrives in New Mexico, St. Pierre comes with a notebook full of philosophical and mathematical questions to discuss with Jackson. Then he’s ready to work.

“That’s where their teammates come in. Because they’re really competitive guys. Their teammates will really push them,” Jackson said. “Instead of sitting back on their laurels, a guy like Georges St. Pierre, comes down and they train and their teammates can really push them. Hold them down, tap them out, rock them with punches, or whatever it takes. The team is a real key element at that point, because you’re able to say ‘Your this great guy but so-and-so just whacked you in the head. You can’t have that happening and it’s because you’re doing this or that.’ I just try to keep them improving, keep them focussed on constantly getting better, constantly looking for a new challenge. Even if it’s outside the cage. Trying to keep them interested-that’s my job.”

Fighting in front of his home town fans, against an opponent who upset him and then sent minions to embarrass him in the media, should be plenty to keep St. Pierre interested. After a win we may see the young Canadian challenge Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva.

“Each fighter has an personal growth plan. We look at the holes in their game and that I try to bring up to the next level,” Jackson said. “If you want to , say, beat Anderson Silva, you’ve got to be able to strike with him or you’re not going to beat him. You have to at least be strong enough in every aspect to hang with the guys who are really good in that aspect. That way you can game plan around it. Otherwise, you’ll just be desperately looking for the one hole or opening and they’re able to capitalize on that desperation. Georges is just the epitome of that. He’s so good at everything that it makes my job easy.”

Canadians love their sports heroes. Wayne Gretzky is pretty much worshipped as a god up here. A few years back, Gretz’ along with Don Cherry both made CBC’s top-ten list of the Greatest Canadian ever. But that’s hockey. A Canadian institution. A sport, dominated by Canadians. With other sports, the situation is a little bit different…

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