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[Martin H]

http://www.blackbeltmag.com/document...ocument_id=461

Karate to the Core
Exclusive Interview With Top UFC Contender Georges St. Pierre
Interview by Edward Pollard

Georges St. Pierre is set to face reigning Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweight titleholder Matt Hughes on September 23, 2006. Black Belt recently caught up with the feisty Canadian to discuss, among other things, his preparation for that much-anticipated bout.

Black Belt: Describe your fight with B.J. Penn in the UFC 58. It looked like he was going to finish you early on, but you made an inspiring comeback.
Georges St. Pierre: The thing is, when I fought B.J., in the first minute I received a shot—I don’t know if it was a glove or a thumb—I received a shot in the eye. For a good three minutes, I couldn’t see him well. I saw double, like when you’re cross-eyed. Every time I had to exchange blows with him, I had to close one eye and fight like that. When you punch with one eye open, you’re not as accurate.

BB: Are you saying you had no depth of field?
St. Pierre: Exactly, but I didn’t want to let him know that I was hurt. That’s why I didn’t back up. Mentally, it was hard because I had to make him believe that I still wanted to attack, but in my mind I just wanted to survive. I’ve looked at the tape [of the fight], and I’m very proud of myself. It looks like I’m not even hurt, but I was pretty bad.

My vision came back at the end of the third round. I don’t know what happened—he caught me on the nerve (points to his lower eyelid) and messed up my vision for a couple of minutes—but afterward I was all right. But I took a lot of punishment because he saw me well and punched with accuracy. I just traded with him to make him believe that I was good, but I wasn’t. If he caught me in the eye, it was my mistake because I should have blocked the shot. Stuff happens.

BB: How are things shaping up for you training-wise now that you’re set for a title shot?
St. Pierre: After my fight with B.J. Penn, I [took a week’s vacation] in Mexico. I didn’t even do a push-up; I just swam, kayaked, stuff like that. But now I’m training every day. I don’t train because I have to; I train because I love my job. I can’t stay home and not do anything; I would feel bad. So I train because I like it. Even if I didn’t fight professionally, I would still train.

BB: When did you start competing?
St. Pierre: I started karate when I was 7 years old. My dad started teaching me, and afterward I went to a school and competed in full-contact tournaments.

BB: Did you participate in any other sports?
St. Pierre: Yeah, I did kyokushin karate and played ice hockey. But at one point when I was maybe 12 years old, my parents told me—because I’m not from a rich family, you know—my parents told me, “You have to make a choice: ice hockey or karate.”

BB: You can’t do it all …
St. Pierre: It costs too much money. My parents were very good with me; they wanted to keep me in sports because they didn’t want me to hang out with bad people and become a criminal or anything like that. I was in a very tough school; my childhood wasn’t easy.

BB: Why did you choose karate?
St. Pierre: I liked karate better because hockey is a team sport and in karate, like any other martial art, you’re alone. You decide your own destiny. Sometimes when you play hockey, you play very well but your teammates don’t, so it messes up everything.

BB: Has karate affected your personal growth and discipline?
St. Pierre: I’m very happy that I learned karate when I was young. A lot of people told me that it’s useless in fighting, but they’re wrong. I’m pretty sure if I hadn’t done it, I wouldn’t be at this level today. Karate made me a lot stronger, and it made me flexible and athletic like I am right now. When I’m fighting, I’m not doing kata, but I use a lot of kicks and techniques that I learned from kyokushin.

BB: When did you begin to branch out and learn ground skills?
St. Pierre: I started learning jujutsu because when I was 12 or 13 years old, my karate teacher died. Before he died, he gave me my second-degree black belt. I stopped doing kyokushin and started doing muay Thai. I liked muay Thai, but then I saw the first Ultimate Fighting Championship with Ken Shamrock, and those guys inspired me to become a mixed-martial arts fighter. As soon as I saw the UFC, I wanted to train for it, but at that time jujutsu didn’t exist in Montreal. I decided to train in muay Thai, and later on I got my third-degree black belt in karate. When I was 16, I found a good place to do Brazilian jujutsu. When I was 18 or 19, I started wrestling and boxing.

BB: Obviously you’re talented enough to pick things up easily.
St. Pierre: It’s because I like what I’m doing. I’m very dedicated.

BB: Do you find a lot of similarities between the disciplines you’ve learned?
St. Pierre: It’s all the same. Even in wrestling, even in striking, it’s all the same. If you look at all the techniques, you see a lot of similar things. In muay Thai and wrestling, all the techniques are connected. When it started, at the beginning of the beginning, it was called pankration. All the techniques were in one art. You had wrestling techniques, ground techniques and striking techniques. We just separated the different styles of fighting. Before, the sport was certainly harder because you could break fingers, punch the groin, bite and gouge eyes.

BB: Have you thought about teaching or doing seminars?
St. Pierre: Sometimes I teach seminars—when I have a chance. I have a lot of offers I can’t accept. I never teach before a fight because I’m focusing on my training.

BB: What training routine do you follow when you have a lot of time before a fight to prepare?
St. Pierre: I always train. The difference is, as I get closer to the fight, I try to mix everything together—like sparring and MMA. When I don’t have a fight soon, I do specific training: I train only in jujutsu with jujutsu guys, only in wrestling with wrestlers, only in boxing with boxers, only in muay Thai with muay Thai guys. That’s how you become a better fighter. When you train MMA all the time with only MMA fighters, you’re going to get a little bit better maybe, but you’re not going to develop your skills.

When there’s a long time before a fight, I correct my mistakes, improve my skills, improve the little details, the weaknesses. Maybe one month before the fight, I stop that kind of training and do more in MMA.

BB: Do you do much weight training?
St. Pierre: I do it once or twice a week, not too much. I prefer plyometrics or training with a partner. I do a lot of workouts with a partner. I use my partner as a dummy. I think it’s more useful because when you fight, you’re fighting another human being. When you lift a bar, the weight is balanced. When you fight a guy, his weight is not fifty-fifty.

BB: Do you have any other special routines?
St. Pierre: I swim a little bit. I also do sprints for conditioning. I do a lot of sparring. I love sparring. Right now I spar with advanced people, but I also spar with beginners because when I learn a new move, it won’t work on a guy of my caliber. So I have to perfect it on somebody who has less experience than me. That way, I can work on the move and afterward try it on somebody at my level.

Before you internalize a move, sometimes you have to do it 500 times. Maybe after 500 times, you’re ready to use it in a real fight against someone at your level.

BB: Tell us about the psychological pressure of fighting a champion with a strong record. How do you deal with that?
St. Pierre: When I fought Matt Hughes the first time, I wasn’t ready mentally. It was way too big for me, all the pressure that I had. Now I’ve learned how to deal with it. I’ve had a lot more fights. I got a lot of experience in my last fight, and I’m not the same guy I was when I fought him the first time. Physically, I’m a lot stronger, a lot faster and more mature. I’m 25, and I’m ready for him. I don’t think anybody’s going to be surprised because a lot of people expect me to win this time.

BB: Are you more motivated than Hughes is?
St. Pierre: Yeah, but I’ve proved that I’m better than I was. Of course I’m going to surprise some people, but even Matt Hughes knows that I’m a lot better than I was. (laughs) I’m more confident, you know?

[Martin H]

note that here he says that his teacher died when he was 12 or 13. in other interviews he says that his teacher Jean Couture died when he was 16.
I sort of suspect that he would not get a 2nd dan as a 12 year old kid, and was fighting knockdown. (although 16 seems way too young for 2nd dan aswell)

[Martin H]

Here is another interview. Note the differences between this and the above.
in this he started karate at 6 and continued to 16. in the previous he started at 8 and continued to 13.

http://www.mmaringreport.com/intervi...w_stpierre.htm

Georges St. Pierre
One Dream at a time...

“I was very sad...” Georges St Pierre trained Kyokushin Karate from the age of six to to the age of sixteen years old, right up until his Karate master of ten years, Jean Couture, died from Lung Cancer. “When my Kyokushin Karate teacher died I wanted to stop Martial Arts.” He almost quit, the then sixteen year old was understandably devastated the day his sensei died, but fortunately for him and his fans, St. Pierre made the decision to continue his training. He now finds himself on the cusp of his second UFC appearance, not a bad feat considering he is only 23 years old and still lives with his parents. It is an appearance that is due in part, to the passing of his master. “I don’t want to say this, as it is not a good thing, but when he died I started a new style of martial arts, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. (The fact) that he died made me start my career in MMA” From the throes of death, birth is only a stones throw away and wrought of sorrow, St. Pierre’s MMA career was born.

Much like everyone else, his dream of fighting in the UFC began on television, from the first show he ever watched he knew that someday that would be his calling. “I went over to my friend’s house and watched my first UFC. It was when Steve Jennum won the UFC….I knew when I saw my first UFC, it was going to be my sport.” His dream of fighting in the UFC would be realized at UFC 46 where he faced off against and defeated the heavily favored Karo Parisyan, grounding and pounding his way to a well deserved unanimous decision victory. Success has followed St. Pierre in every endeavor he has pursued, but even on the eve of another showing in the “Big Show”, he is keeping his eyes open and realizes that he is only one fall, or one injury away from sitting on the sidelines for good. It is a reality and something that has hit close to home for the young upstart. “One of my friends got injured and now his career is finished. [My girlfriend] is always saying to me “keep your mind open because this thing happened to your friend and it can happen to you.” She is a little bit worried about me but that is good, she wants to keep my eyes open. I know one day I can get injured and my career can be finished. It can happen to anybody, this is a dangerous sport, we don’t play golf.” Golf is the last thing on his mind as he prepares for the second step in his journey of achieving one of his goals. In two years, his hopes to get a title shot in the welterweight division against whoever the champion is at that time. In the meantime he is also preparing to start his first year of university in the fall to study sport science. It is another dream that will be fulfilled in the coming fall season to coincide with that of his dream of fighting in the UFC.


While his scholastic endeavors are goals that are developed with the perusal of fat textbooks, the 23 year old’s MMA dreams are cultivated on the mat, and training is spent with Angelo Exarhakos at Tristar gym in Montreal Canada, sweating it out with UFC veteran David Loiseau, Steve Vigneault, and Ivan Menjivar among others. He currently wrestles with the Canadian Olympic team, boxes with Canadian Golden glove champion Paul Clavette and is a purple belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu under Brazilian Top Team Black belt Fabio Holanda. It is the same Fabio Holanda who ironically fought St. Pierre’s upcoming UFC opponent Jay Hieron in Hieron’s most recent MMA fight.

St. Pierre’s pro MMA record now stands at a perfect 5-0, with one no contest with fellow UFC 48 cardmate Ivan Menjivar, he has come a long way from his first MMA bout, which was an amateur bout that took place when he was just 16 years old. “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 nothing on the ground.” Georges won his fight by knockout, going low with several leg kicks and then going high with a Karate kick to the head. To this day much of the media has him pegged as a wrestler, or a Jiu Jitsu fighter, but he still considers himself a karate stylist at heart. His amateur MMA record stands at 4 wins and no losses. He even sports an amateur boxing record of 6-0 on top of his pro MMA record of 5-0, with the most impressive victory of all coming over the talented Judo stylist Karo Parisyan in his first UFC fight, a fight that St Pierre claims was the toughest of his career.

That was then, this is now, he knows what Jay Hieron brings to the table and he is prepared for the most grueling battle of his career. He has spent some time with Hieron in the gym practicing wrestling drills together in New York at Rodrigo Gracies academy, an academy where he has spent some time in the past. They will not be strangers when the meet in the Octagon in Las Vegas and he knows that the talented Hieron will be looking to hurt him, which is something that he is now accustomed to. “When I was at school all the guys tried to hurt me to have my money and tried to steal my clothes, I (would) always fight…. I was alone and I started martial arts…I got my ass kicked a lot of times in the street at this time. A lot of people ask me…“Hey Georges you must be undefeated in the street, I think that nobody can beat you.” That maybe now, but when I was young, I think my record was 2 victories and twenty five losses… when you are 8-9 years old and the other guys are 12-13, they are teenagers and you are a kid.” George St Pierre is right, he was a kid, but that was then, and this is now. The young kid who got hurt and beat up for his money and his clothes is no longer. Georges St Pierre the kid has ushered in Georges St Pierre the man and is making his way in the world, one step, one fight, and one dream at a time.

[alan]

Regardless if the years do no tmatch I think it was great reading. I was once told that GSP and Yannick Galipeau, who I think is great fighter, are from the same dojo. Is this true?

[Bloke]

Yannick Gallipeau was one of the outsanding fighters at the IFK Third World Tournament - actually the whole Canadian team were fantastic - Mikhail Zimmerman and Julie Nadeau.

[alan]

Originally Posted by Bloke

Yannick Gallipeau was one of the outsanding fighters at the IFK Third World Tournament - actually the whole Canadian team were fantastic - Mikhail Zimmerman and Julie Nadeau.

I can't do anything but agree! Yannick Gallipeau performance in this tournament was awesome!!! I didn't see the event live but have teh DVD.

[Liu]

Originally Posted by Martin H

note that here he says that his teacher died when he was 12 or 13. in other interviews he says that his teacher Jean Couture died when he was 16.
I sort of suspect that he would not get a 2nd dan as a 12 year old kid, and was fighting knockdown. (although 16 seems way too young for 2nd dan aswell)

It is possible that he got Nidan at 12. I've seen 9 years old kids with Shodan. They probably started very young and had at least 4 hours of training a week.

[ksan]

I have heard of 9 year old blackbelts... some organisations grade them to blackbelt and not shodan and the grade automatically becomes a shodan at 14, 16 or 18 (without grading).... Some organisations do grade to shodan at 14. I have seen 14 year old shodans who absolutely deserved the grade... and they had to wait 6 years to be graded to nidan after that... no matter how good they were.... In my belief a shodan isnt just a physical grade... its also signifies a mental achievement (that person is ready for that grade), with young people we need to look at the fact if they are mature enough to understand the meaning of many things inside kyokushin and give the right example to others) The 14 year olds i spoke of were at that time fully equiped to run a dojo and train others... I read the story of a 15 year old girl (shodan) wo took over her sensei`s dojo after he went away... in those cases i say... yes i can understand a shodan.... But i have trouble with a 9 year old being a shodan because in no way can he or she be mature enough for this (and we are totally forgetting all the legal items that pop up with giving young people such responsible tasks)... I had a discussion once on another board with someone defending his shihan`s son who was shodan at 10 or 11. His main point was that the boy new very much and could perform all techniques and kata`s (and he meant.. all of them) And that he didnt see any objections why the boy wasnt to be graded to shodan... I believe that he forgot 1 thing.. and that is patience (on the part of the boy)...

There is another thing with young people and to my experience that is that when they reach puberty they tend to change their field of interesse... and leave... no matter what grade they have (white or brown belts)... i have had youngsters in our dojo who would train from the age of 8th to the age of 15 and leave when they were getting better and better and were aproaching a blackbelt level (reason: parties, school, girlfriend/boyfriend working after school and so on) Although i support them in their decission.. they ussually made them on very good grounds, i still feel bad about losing that student.... For myself i have made the decission that i will never grade, or let anyone take part in a grading for a yudansha grade of whom i donot believe they have kyokushin in their hearts and will practise it till they die.... (Maybe i am wrong at thinking like this, but for now this is how i stand )...

As a last remark, i did my shodan grading some years ago and with me was another man/boy grading... he was 24 or 25 and had been doing kyokushin for like 17 or 18 years (a long time in my opinion, for someone that age)...
He passed his grading and the first thing he did was tell his shihan he quited, i can still remember the look on the shihans face when the shihan came to tell us what happenend........ Even though it has been quite some years since this happend i can remember it like it was yesterday....

Osu

Ksan