Music: {allcanada} GSP has a little fun at media workout

Thursday, April 28, 2011

{allcanada} GSP has a little fun at media workout

TORONTO -- It appears UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre will have no problem if challenger Jake Shields enters the cage with a knife on Saturday night.

Looking to have a little fun, St-Pierre showed off his self-defence at a media workout Thursday.

St-Pierre's coach Firas Zahabi, wearing a hoodie and sunglasses, simulated a knife attack on the champion in the cage. St-Pierre, wearing a blue gi, disarmed him with a few well-placed punches and kicks, eventually putting him face down on the mat.

Zahabi got back up and the two bowed to each other before hugging.

"It was fun. It was just to amuse the crowd," a smiling St-Pierre told reporters later.

The 29-year-old from Montreal is no fan of the UFC's media workouts but all the fighters were told they had to get in the cage and do something Thursday for the large media turnout.

St-Pierre did his self-defence demo plus a quick karate kata -- or series of moves.

He said he plans to do something different before each fight.

"The truth is I'm a day away from the weigh-in, two days away from the fight so I can't really train," St-Pierre explained. "I'm cutting weight. I cut (out) the carbs and the sodium so I'm quite weak honestly, because I'm losing weight... . Doing something like this, I'm from a karate background, it made me remember the old days of self-defence, a kata with self-defence. It was fun."

St-Pierre (21-2) and Shields (26-4-1) will face off Saturday night before 55,000 at the Rogers Centre at UFC 129.

St-Pierre was asked if he ever had to use his self-defence skills during his days as a bouncer at the Fuzzy Brossard nightclub in suburban Montreal.

"I was fortunate enough most of the time to talk my way out of trouble," he recalled. "So when I had problems with someone, I was able to talk, I was not using my strength. I think it's the best way in the street, in general to deal with problems.

"You can be as strong as you want but nobody is faster than a bullet. And I remember when I stopped working there someone got shot, like two weeks after I stopped working. ... It's always better to talk than use violence."

St-Pierre admitted the violence will come before the talking Saturday night, however.

"After the fight we'll talk to each other," he said with a laugh. "I don't dislike Jake. He's one of the fighters I admire the most, as a matter of fact. He's one of the guys that I've wanted to fight for a long time.

"As a real champion, I want to fight the best guy. ... I consider Jake Shields like a champion. He's had five titles in different organizations, in different weight classes which I have never done before. And I want to be the one to stop Jake Shields."

Shields, who has only fought once in the UFC, is on a 15-fight winning streak dating back to 2005.

St-Pierre has won his last eight fights and has not lost a round since August 2007.

"We're both dealing with issues," said the 32-year-old Shields. "I'm dealing with being in hostile territory but he's dealing with just tremendous amounts of pressure right now so I think it kind of evens out."

Shields' biggest issue this week has been avoiding morning interviews. A night owl, the San Francisco native says he hasn't been able to go to sleep before 5 or 6 a.m.

The Venetian casino in Las Vegas lists St-Pierre as a 5-1 favourite.