GSP lets others talk Penn

There are people salivating at the prospect of a Georges St. Pierre-B.J. Penn fight before the end of the year.

It seems to be all UFC lightweight champion Penn talks about these days.

For St. Pierre, it’s a different story. A little over a year ago, the two-time welterweight champion, who defends his title against Jon Fitch in the main event of Saturday's UFC 87, looked past an opponent and learned one of the most valuable lessons of his career.

After winning his first title in one-sided fashion over a legendary champion in Matt Hughes at UFC 65, most of the fight world was thinking about the highly anticipated rematch.

But in the interim, St. Pierre dropped the title to Matt Serra, an 8-to-1 underdog.

"I don’t even think about B.J. Penn," said the 27-year-old St. Pierre, who is generally considered with Anderson Silva, Penn and Fedor Emelianenko as among the four most talented fighters in the world today. "I’m going to fight Jon Fitch for my first title defense. I have a chance to succeed where I failed the last time. It’s almost a year-and-a-half since I lost my first title defense and now I have a chance to redeem myself and succeed."

St. Pierre's story had a happy ending, as in what St. Pierre called the greatest moment of his life, on April 19, before the largest crowd in UFC history, St. Pierre regained the title from Serra in his hometown of Montreal.

The win, in front of 21,390 and a record Canadian pay-per-view audience, made St. Pierre (16-2) a Canadian sports hero who has been on the cover of numerous fighting, fitness and sports magazines in his native land.

St. Pierre finds himself a 7-to-2 favorite in this go-round in a sport where long lines are often the kiss of death to bookmakers. He headlines UFC 87 on Saturday night against Fitch at the Target Center in Minneapolis.

Fitch is not as gifted an athlete as St. Pierre, but is an overachiever with a reputation for hard work and intense dedication dating back to high school. Fitch went to Purdue University as a walk-on and left as the team captain. He got blown out in his first MMA fight, but he comes into his title shot tied for Royce Gracie’s UFC record of eight straight wins, set in 1993-94.

After college, Fitch moved to San Jose, to train at the American Kickboxing Academy, and budgeted himself $800 a month to live on in one of the most expensive markets in the country, $500 of which went to rent.

He had three shirts to his name. He did little but train and live on eggs, tuna and Ramen.

When Javier Mendez, the owner of AKA and strategic mastermind behind Fitch for the fight, talked recently of the most talented athletes to walk through his doors, Fitch did not make the list. Mendez noted that nobody works harder than Fitch or improves any faster.

Fitch, 22-2, has reeled off 15 straight wins since losing at the end of 2002.

"MMA is my life," Fitch said. "All I do is train. The only thing that might change is I’m doing more interviews and I get recognized a little bit more."

While St. Pierre-Serra was billed as a grudge match, with Serra masterfully playing the role of the villain, you’d be hard pressed to get either St. Pierre or Fitch to say much negative about the other.

"The guys at the top are professional," said the 30-year-old Fitch. "Guys who talk trash don’t last. They do it because they suck as fighters. We have to do what we have to do. For 25 minutes, we’ll hate each other, and after that, we’ll be fine again."

St. Pierre said he likes Fitch, has studied a lot of tapes of him, and has his game plan that he won’t talk about. He said Fitch is good in every aspect. But he also believes he’s better than Fitch in every aspect.

"He’s got a big heart," St. Pierre said. "He never gives up. I’ve met him and he’s a nice guy.

But does that have any relevance to the fight?

"Not at all," he said. "He can be my friend after our fight on Saturday night. I’m still going to hit him in the head as hard as I can."

About the only thing testy Fitch has said is he thinks St. Pierre is gun-shy about the stand-up, citing that since the loss to Serra, the first thing he’s done in every fight is take his opponent down.

"If he thinks I’m gun-shy, he’ll find out on Saturday night," said St. Pierre, who noted he’s been training his stand-up game of late with a Steve Thompson, a kickboxing world champion.

St. Pierre’s strategy since the loss to Serra is to beat everyone at the best part of their game. He outwrestled Josh Koscheck, a former NCAA champion in the sport. He outwrestled Hughes, a two-time All-American who was considered the sport’s all-time best welterweight relying primarily on his wrestling to physically wear everyone out. He took Serra down immediately, and Serra was supposedly at his best on his back. With the exception of the second round against Koscheck, he’s dominated three fights, facing two champions and a top contender from start-to-finish.

Meanwhile, Fitch’s last two wins have been struggles. He scored a split decision over Diego Sanchez in his highest-profile fight, winning largely because he was physically bigger and stronger. In his most recent fight, he faced a game Chris Wilson, winning by decision March 1 in Columbus, Ohio, but it also exposed his trademark trick of baiting an opponent by faking like he’s leaving an opening. The opponent sees it, and goes for the submission. He sits back and calmly defends, often for several minutes, while the opponent burns out his arms or legs in trying to put on the squeeze. With the opponent spent, Fitch gets out of the move, and takes over the fight. But you can only play that card so many times before opponents recognize the opening they perceive is really part of Fitch’s game plan.

But for all the talk of skill, guts or athleticism, St. Pierre figures the key to the fight is what both men have already done in training camp and said thinks Fitch is the toughest opponent he’s faced.

"Probably who will win is who has the best conditioning," he said.

St. Pierre said he thinks he’s had the best training camp of his career, mostly based out of Montreal, although he’s taken detours through Albuquerque and even Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, sparring with the likes of Roger Huerta, Rashad Evans, Keith Jardine, Nathan Marquardt, Denis Kang, David Loiseau, Patrick Cote as well as assorted Montreal-based boxers and wrestlers.

"I’m training to fight an army," he said. "I have a fresh guy, one after the other, and they’re tough guys."

"I don’t worry about pressure," said Fitch. "It’s a game to me. It’s fun.

I’m living a dream. There is no pressure. Win, lose or draw, it doesn’t matter. I’m having fun."

St. Pierre has a different mentality in the hours before the fight.

"I’m always nervous," he said. "Very nervous. Very excited."