Firas Zahabi, the head MMA trainer at the Tristar Gym in Montreal, is quickly becoming one of the more respected coaches in MMA. Zahabi was once known primarily for being Georges St-Pierre's trainer but has recently added the likes of Jon Jones, Denis Kang and Kenny Florian to his impressive stable of fighters.
FanHouse spoke to Zahabi recently about the possibly of a St-Pierre fight against Anderson Silva, Florian leaving Team Sityodtong, and Jones' potential in the sport. Check out the full video interview below.
Prior to UFC 72, Martin Kampmann was on the verge of fighting Rich Franklin for a future shot at middleweight champion Anderson Silva. However, a knee injury forced him to withdraw from the bout. Since then, the 27-year-old worked his way up the welterweight division. He was supposed to fight Mike Swick at UFC 103 for a shot at current 170-pound champion Georges St-Pierre, but Swick pulled out late last week after suffering a concussion in training.
Kampmann (15-2) will now face UFC newcomer Paul Daley (21-8-2) on Sept. 19, but as he recently told FanHouse, no title shot will be on the line. Still, the Danish-born fighter, who most recently defeated Carlos Condit at UFC Fight Night 18 in April, is just excited to return to action. Check out the full interview below.
Sometimes it feels like the UFC Octagon girls are more popular than the fighters themselves. That would explain why when Las Vegas-resident Natasha Wicks won the recent Maxim Magazine Octagon Girl search at UFC 100 in July, it was treated like big news around the MMA blogosphere.
FanHouse recently spoke to Wicks about making her debut at UFC 101 earlier this month in Philadelphia and her other job as a golf caddy. Yes, a golf caddy. The full interview is below.
When I spoke to Forrest Griffin about his upcoming showdown against Anderson Silva at UFC 101 on Aug. 8, I got the sense that he wanted to talk about anything but that fight. Fine by me. The former UFC light heavyweight champion is one of the most personable and funny fighters in MMA.
Check out our interview below, where Griffin talks about everything from Kenny Powers to what he is looking forward to doing the most come Aug. 9. (Warning: explicit language below)
In most cases, a title fight has a significant impact on where fighters are ranked in their particular weight class. Usually, when the challenger loses, he moves down a few spots in the rankings and has to work his way back up again. In some cases, a fight can be extremely close or inconclusive, mandating an immediate rematch. The fight between Georges St. Pierre and Jon Fitch is the rare case where the outcome was conclusive, no immediate rematch is warranted, and yet St. Pierre and Fitch should remain #1 and #2 in the welterweight division.
If there was something higher than #1, that's where St. Pierre would be. He took the fight to Fitch in every conceivable way -- on the feet, in the clinch, and on the ground -- and won convincingly in each. It's not as if there was any doubt before, but he must obviously remain #1.
It's a championship fight featuring a dominant champion and a contender with question marks about his game. The champion is a finisher; the challenger tends to grind out decisions. It seems that everything the challenger does, the champion does just a little better. But still, the challenger is known for his heart and mental toughness; the champion still has doubters about how he performs when hurt or under pressure.
All of those statements could be used to describe the matchup this Saturday night between welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre and challenger Jon Fitch. But the descriptions above are also a spot-on summary of popular sentiment leading into the fight between Forrest Griffin and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson.
The thing I like about the video -- and what I like about the UFC 87 card -- is that it features three different fights that should be big draws for the fans.
Georges St-Pierre is taking on Jon Fitch for the welterweight championship in the main event, and that should be the best 170-pound mixed martial arts fight of the year. Kenny Florian against Roger Huerta is a match-up of two of the top lightweights in the organization, not to mention two of UFC's most personable fighters. And having Brock Lesnar back in the Octagon will generate an extra 100,000 or so pay-per-view buys.
UFC 86 was basically a one-fight card, with the Forrest Griffin-Rampage Jackson main event getting all the promotion. UFC 85 didn't even have one big fight. But UFC 87 is stacked.
UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre is working on his jiu-jitsu in Brazil while he gets ready to fight Jon Fitch at UFC 87 in August, and he stopped for an interview on a Brazilian beach:
Said St-Pierre on his thoughts about his opponent, "I think Jon Fitch is a very good fighter. I think I'm overall a better fighter than he is, and I'm going to have to come well prepared, otherwise it's going to be a bad night for me. But I think I'm pretty confident."
One of the best things ESPN.com does is post a lot of videos related to mixed martial arts. That's particularly surprising because ESPN doesn't televise MMA, and fans of other sports, especially hockey, have complained that ESPN simply ignores the sports it doesn't televise. But here it is, the latest ESPN MMA video, a rundown of the world's Top 10 pound-for-pound MMA fighters, according to Sherdog:
I think we've reached the point where it's obvious to anyone who follows the sport who the No. 1 fighter on the list is going to be, but what about positions 2-10? For those who don't feel like watching the video to find out, the list is after the jump.
The answer is most likely Jon Fitch, and that would be a fine fight. But UFC prides itself on putting together more than just "fine" fights -- UFC is supposed to be about giving its fans the best fights. And the best fight imaginable in the sport of mixed martial arts is St-Pierre against UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva.
The biggest obstacle is that it's just hard to see St-Pierre winning if he moved all the way up from welterweight (170 pounds) to middleweight (185). And Silva can't get down to 170 pounds. So they ought to meet at 180, a weight that Silva could reach safely if somewhat less comfortably and that St-Pierre could get up to and still be in top shape. They could call it the pound-for-pound title fight, and they could let both fighters keep their weight class belts when they moved back to their previous weight classes afterward.
That's a fight that should happen now because Silva is 33 and St-Pierre is 26. Silva won't be in his prime for much longer, so we can't wait a year or more. UFC has the two best fighters in MMA under contract and needs to put them in the Octagon together.
Firas Zahabi, the head MMA trainer at the Tristar Gym in Montreal, is quickly becoming one of the more respected coaches in MMA. Zahabi was once known primarily for being Georges St-Pierre's trainer but has recently added the likes of Jon Jones, Denis Kang and Kenny Florian to his impressive stable of fighters.
Prior to UFC 72, 
Sometimes it feels like the UFC Octagon girls are more popular than the fighters themselves. That would explain why when Las Vegas-resident 
When I spoke to 
In most cases, a title fight has a significant impact on where fighters are ranked in their particular weight class. Usually, when the challenger loses, he moves down a few spots in the rankings and has to work his way back up again. In some cases, a fight can be extremely close or inconclusive, mandating an immediate rematch. The fight between 
It's a championship fight featuring a dominant champion and a contender with question marks about his game. The champion is a finisher; the challenger tends to grind out decisions. It seems that everything the challenger does, the champion does just a little better. But still, the challenger is known for his heart and mental toughness; the champion still has doubters about how he performs when hurt or under pressure.
