Catching Up from Albuquerque
by StPierre 
First I want to thank everybody for their get well wishes -- I feel way better right now than I felt when I came back from L.A. It took me 3 days to recuperate and get back 100%. I didn't take any medication - I just slept better and trained to sweat it out. After I felt better, I went to New York to see my trainer Phil Nurse and train with 4 of his students who had an upcoming fight at The Wat - Brett, Sean, Nicholas & Stan. It seems to me that every time I go to New York, those guys get better & better all the time. I also saw my old friends Eric Owing & Andre Gusmao - we went to dinner and then out together for a great night. Then I came back in Montreal with new tricks and more tools than I had before I went to New York. It's very important for me to help my friends and training partners when they need it because they were there for me when I prepare for my fights. When I came back to Montreal, I kept training with Patrick Cote & Denis Kang, who are both fighting on October 25th. Kang is fighting in Calgary, and Patrick Cote is fighting Anderson Silva for the UFC World Middleweight Championship. Patrick looks better than I have ever seen -- even though the odds are not in his favor, I would not be surprised to see him shock the world. It would be great to have world champions in Quebec! Georges Laraque, one of my friends who also plays for the Montreal Canadiens hockey team, gave me two tickets to go see their game Saturday night. Even though it was an off-season game, it was very fun and then after I went to see EliteXC at a friend's house. Gina did a nice performance and I'm glad for her because she also represents the sport very well. The main event was obviously a tough situation because Ken had to pull out because of a cut... and I have a lot of respect for Seth & Kimbo to still go out and put on the fight for the fans. I know a lot of people have been seeing on the internet that I signed with CAA -- I think it is a very smart move from my manager to get me on board with CAA because they represent some of the greatest athletes in sports and in the entertainment industry. I'm glad and honored to be the first MMA fighter that they represent. After a quick trip to L.A. for a personal appearance, I'm now in Albuquerque for training with Keith Jardine, Joey Villasenor & some other guys in Team Jackson to help them out for their upcoming fights. But I can't wait until this weekend -- my mentor, Krystoff Midoux, is coming in Montreal from France to see me. It has been a while that I haven't seen him -- we've been talking on the phone every week to keep in touch, but I'm very excited to see him back in Montreal. He's such a crazy character and he's the guy who started me in the sport when I was a nobody. So even though I'm a world champion right now, for me, Krystoff will always be higher than me in the hierarchy because he's my first teacher of MMA. I saw Krystoff fight the first time in Kanhawake when I was a teenager -- at this time, I hadn't started my amateur career in MMA. Krystoff was my idol because he was coming from a Kyokushin karate background like me, and he used to knock out all his opponents in less than 30 seconds. At this time, everybody told me that I would never be able to be a UFC fighter, because I was not strong & not big and not good enough. Believe it or not, but I met Krystoff in the street one day by pure coincidence. I stopped him and he was very gentle with me because he took the time to talk to me. So after a couple of weeks, by pure coincidence again, I saw him in a jiu jitsu school with one of my friends, Stephane Potvin, who was also a friend of Krystoff's. Krystoff remembered seeing me in the street a couple of weeks before that, and he saw that I was doing very well in training, even though I was younger than all the other guys. He came to talk to me, and he told me that if I was interested, I could start training with him and he would start teaching me how to train and change my routine for a more appropriate MMA training. I right away jumped on the opportunity and that's how I began to be the fighter that I am. I fought 4 times in amateur fights, all wins, before I started my professional career. Actually, you could see Krystoff in my corner during my fights against Frank Trigg & Sean Sherk. I can't wait to see him this weekend -- we have a lot to catch up together and I look forward to having a good time with him. For me, it's very important to always remember where you come from, and who are the people who helped you in the beginning before you reach success.
AshHansen said October 09, 2008
Glad to hear your back to 100% and training hard again!
Hearing about all your travels, training and helping others it's good to hear you finally got to get some sleep. ; )
The CAA deal is a great one for your career and great for MMA. I think after the great success of Death Warrior you should consider maybe acting in a comedy maybe? : P
Best wishes goes out to the fighters you've been helping also.. Especially Patrick not only because he seems like a great person but he's going for the title.. and in the game of MMA no fighter can be counted out.
Also great to hear about keeping in touch with your original mentor. It's great to hear that no matter how far you've come, you never forgot those who were there with you, from the beggning.
Great post.
Take care Champ
Ash Hansen
fat2rak005 said October 09, 2008
Luca26 said October 09, 2008
Keep up the training, and best of luck!
RearNakedNews said October 09, 2008
Good luck with CAA. It's great for you and even better news for the sport. Mainstream is finally taking MMA seriously.
http://www.rearnakednews.com
Dewey said October 09, 2008
Deadlift410 said October 09, 2008
As for Cote, ill be rooting for him a ''la cage au sport'' with a bunch of friends, its so exciting to see him fight for the title!
Keep training and stay like you are, you really separate yourself from the rest in this fight world!
Trunkadunka said October 09, 2008
Nellie said October 09, 2008
Cuddle_Bunny said October 09, 2008
LukeDeVilliers said October 09, 2008
I look forward to more of George's blog posts now, too, because his previous Flash-based website had hip-hop music that was so loud I almost fainted.
Alexandra84 replied October 12, 2008
southnfrydrice said October 09, 2008
southnfrydrice replied October 11, 2008
aali14 said October 09, 2008
MMArie said October 09, 2008
I remember seeing you and Kristoff at a No-Gi competition at GAMMA few years ago. You even played the referee! Kristoff is a big guy and I was trying to compare my muscles to him (Although I am a girl!) Unfortunately, I was to shy to say "Hello" to both of you...
When are you going to open your own gym in Montreal? For sure, I'll be there to imrpove my techniques.
Adrienne said October 09, 2008
xoxo
Adrienne
PrepChamps said October 09, 2008
GSPFAN_01 said October 09, 2008
hazzardam said October 09, 2008
Seebald said October 09, 2008
Suqleg said October 09, 2008
michaelborne replied October 13, 2008
GSPtheGREATfan said October 09, 2008
Im sure with all your hard training your going to slaughter BJ.
Don't party to hard and keep us posted.
-your biggest fan
gspsuperfan said October 09, 2008
old_master said October 09, 2008
harinmckeaster replied October 09, 2008
tikitmb said October 09, 2008
grmd61 replied October 10, 2008
ElGuapo said October 09, 2008
All of us fans are now well assured that you could dictate the fight on next your encounter with Penn knowing that you have such a high level of training.
Congrats on CAA thing GSP!
ElGuapo said October 09, 2008
You have such a great training system and us fans are now assured that you will dictate the next
encounter with Penn.
Congrats on the CAA too!
I thought at first it was Canadian Automobile Association which I have also LOL!
alleycat said October 09, 2008
TheJedi said October 10, 2008
Ladogaboy said October 10, 2008
candice_554 said October 10, 2008
harinmckeaster said October 09, 2008
hockeychick23 said October 10, 2008
mercymercy said October 10, 2008
omarjohn0 said October 12, 2008
Broncobabe said October 11, 2008
cmdeans said October 12, 2008
I loved the story about how Krystoff helped you get started. It's always inspiring to hear stories like this of an established person being humble and caring enough to help out a stranger on the street. And look at what a difference it made in this case! I'm sure he must be very proud. :)
All the best,
Carolyn
gspcrazy said October 12, 2008
mike88888 said October 12, 2008
DrCards said October 12, 2008
Glad to hear you're feeling better...it stinks to be sick...believe me I know not sleeping ruins your immune system. Your blogs are awesome...very well written and fun to read. Thanks for keeping us all entertained :) I hope you and your friend had a blast this weekend...it was beautiful out and the weather is perfect!
Congrats on all your success and keep up the hard work!
Cheers,
Illena
michaelborne said October 13, 2008
"Predator eats Spider, Rush to Quebec for victory party." Make him believe, GSP!
CAA: the honor is all their's, GSP. Individuals are honorable, like your mentor, Kristof Midoux ; organizations, not so much.
Penn says you earned a shot with your victory over Fitch. Make sure you give him your shot to his temple. That guy is too arrogant. After you show him why you deserve a shot, you should take his LW belt and give it to a worthy lightweight of your choice, then make him fight for it again and don't forget to thank BJ for giving you a shot at him?!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSGyQq8QHd4&feature=related
pelechati said October 13, 2008
Xaverdy2go said October 13, 2008
http://www.graciemag.com/news/144/ARTICLE/12104/2008-10-12.html
Mauvaise nouvelle pour tes prochains adversaires!!!
J'ai hâte de te revoir faire ce que tu fais le mieux et surtout te voir battre Bj penn une deuxième fois. Après ca je ne crois pas qu'on va le revoir remonter dans l'octogne après un de tes combats pour te dire "You wanna do with again Georges, You wanna do with". haha Poke him!!!!!
fryekwondo said October 13, 2008
szausza said October 14, 2008
greetings from Poland!
Karla_UFC replied October 15, 2008
I know there are countless gals who would love to wear some hot GSP Ts ; )
What do you think, Georges?
GSP1Fan said October 14, 2008
dillo24 said October 18, 2008
Melina86 said October 19, 2008
aa20082 said October 20, 2008
gohabsgo said October 24, 2008