St. Pierre Out to Prove There's More to Canada Than Snow and Maple Syrup

Georges St. Pierre will finally get his rematch against welterweight champ Matt Serra at this Saturday's UFC 83 in Montreal, but to the young Canadian there's more to the bout than simple revenge. For on April 19th, St. Pierre intends to show the world that he's the best 170-pounder out there - and he wants to prove that there's more to his native country than just snow and maple syrup. "We are a proud people full of culture and refinement," said the former champ from his log cabin in the Yukon. With his pet moose "Matilda" grunting in the background, St. Pierre continued. "We do not sit around and speak French and wear fur hats all the time. We also train very, very hard in the mixed martial arts. You will see. At UFC 83, I will put down my poutine - which is a popular Quebecois dish consisting of french fries, cheese curds and gravy - and reclaim the belt that was mine."

An Honest Review of YAMMA Pit Fighting

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Proving Grounds: The New Kid on the Amateur MMA Block

"Proving Grounds" is the latest amateur MMA promotion to sprout up, and it's the child of veteran promoters Lou Neglia & Ray Longo. On Saturday night, representatives from some of the top fight teams in New York and New Jersey stepped into the cage at the Recreation Center in Rahway. A good time was had by all.

An Ode to MMA's Mystery Men

They come out of nowhere to headline a local event or appear on some big show undercard. They possess enough raw talent and skill to kick serious ass, and when the dust settles fans are left scratching their heads, wondering where the hell these guys came from. They are MMA's mystery men, and whether they've spent the last few years mixing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Muay Thai or toiling on the mats in some isolated Russian conclave, they have always been the X-factors of the sport. On this week's "Iron Ring", Northeast mystery man and jiu-jitsu brown belt JoJo Guarin got royally screwed out of a submission win but looked great in process, while sambo specialist Oleg Savitsky will step into the cage to throw down at this Friday's YAMMA event in Atlantic City. And though they might not be carbon copies of the sport's greatest mystery man in BJ Penn (who emerged from the shadows at UFC 31 to dominate and become one of the best), fighters like Guarin and Savitsky - and Billy Craparo, Shannon McGee and countless others - will always be the secret ingredient in MMA's recipe for success.

A Very Brief Interview with Randy Couture

Wayward UFC champ Randy Couture was at the IFL's "New Blood, New Battles" event in New Jersey on Friday to corner Jay Hieron, and while holding the door to the front entrance of the arena open for the fighting legend, MMA Journalist conducted this very brief interview before the show.

MMA Journalist: "Hey man."

Couture: "Hey stud."

MMA Journalist: "How you doing?"

Couture: "I'm doing good."

MMA Journalist: "Cool."

Jim Miller Makes IFL Rue the Day They Signed Him

If the International Fight League is a parade, then Jim Miller is rain. At the IFL's "New Blood, New Battles" event at the IZOD Center on Friday, incumbent star Bart Palaszewski - one of the organization's top 155-pound fighters - stepped into the ring against Renzo Gracie Jiu-Jitsu representative Miller and was completely handled for all three rounds. How badly was he handled? After the event, four crates of "Bartimus is #1" giant foam fingers were found in a dumpster behind the arena, and it's rumored that IFL founder Kurt Otto approached Palaszewski backstage and demanded the Midwest Combat fighter repay all the money the organization had spent on promoting him. Yes, Miller is a definite monkey wrench in whatever works the IFL had in mind for their lightweight division, and with champ Ryan Schultz taking on Miller's teammate Deividas Taurosevicius (a bout that Schultz will likely lose), the only logical match-up left for Miller is Chris Horodecki - which means the value of another heavily-pushed IFL star will be reduced to zero. Miller, with his seamless wrestling and jiu-jitsu, is destined to make the IFL rue the day they signed him.

Official EliteXC/Strikeforce Salaries

MMA Journalist has obtained a list of the official salaries paid to competitors for Saturday night's EliteXC/Strikeforce event in San Jose, California. As was reported to the California State Athletic Commission, the Frank Shamrock/Cung Le-headlined show drew a "shitload" of fans (a "crapload" of which paid for tickets), making this one of the company's most successful outings to date. The total payroll was listed as "a pittance". The salary figures are as follows:
-Cung Le (who defeated Shamrock): $10,000 in gold doubloons, a signed copy of Stephen King's "It" and the soundtrack to "Grease-The Original Broadway Cast" on 8-track tape. -Frank Shamrock: $3,000 worth of strippers. -Drew Fickett (who defeated Jae S. Lim): 1,000 pesos, an electric moustache trimmer and a gigantic wheel of aged swiss cheese. -Jae S. Lim: one square meal. -Gilbert Melendez (who defeated Gabe Lemley): $40.67 and the complete "Lord of the Rings" DVD box set. -Gabe Lemley: a pack of smokes. -Wayne Cole (who defeated Mike Kyle): $800 worth of food stamps plus the respect and adulation of the MMA community. -Mike Kyle: Rorion Gracie's "The Basics of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Volume 1" on Betamax. -Joey Villasenor (who defeated Ryan Jensen): a red 1982 Volkswagon Bug with tinted windows. -Ryan Jensen: a Team Quest T-shirt. -Billy Evangelista (who defeated Marlon Sims): the leadership position in Sim's underground-dwelling band of mutants known as the "Morlocks". -Marlon Sims: the right to add five more streetfighting victories to his record. -Tiki Ghosn, Luke Stewart, Darren Uyenoyama, Anthony Figueroa, Jesse Jones and Jesse Gillespie weren't paid anything, and actually gave EliteXC/Strikeforce officials money to compete on the card.

Spoilers for TUF 7: "Ultimate Housing Projects"

The seventh season of "The Ultimate Fighter" premieres tonight on SpikeTV after the live UFN broadcast, and while it is well-known that UFC champ Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and TUF veteran Forrest Griffin are coaches and that the season will begin with 32 fighters competing just to be on the show, new details have emerged regarding the pre-recorded but highly-secretive series. SPOILER WARNING: -Unlike prior seasons, which took place in a lavish house in Las Vegas, this season takes place in on the 23rd floor of the Oprah Q. Winfrey Housing Projects located in East Harlem, New York City. -Of the 32 competitors vying for the 16 vacant slots, only 24 actually get to fight. Three are stabbed, two are shot, two jump out of windows and one is arrested in a drug sweep. -Rampage joins the Nation of Islam and invites Louis Farrakhan to be a guest trainer. The UFC champ promises to defeat Griffin's team "by any means necessary". -Griffin, under pressure from housing project residents to vacate the premises, averts disaster by convincing the crowd that they're filming the next season of BET's "Iron Ring". Shouts of "Kill whitey! Kill whitey!" are changed to "Kill the head and the body will follow! There's no warming up on the streets!" -Dana White is mugged and the UFC Hummer is stolen and stripped for parts.

Breaking News: UFC Fighter "Looking for Victory"

This just in to the MMA Journalist newsroom: according to a report on Sherdog.com, one of the competitors in tonight's UFC Fight Night event in Colorado actually wants to win his bout. Thanks to the investigative efforts of veteran journalists Greg Savage and Dave Mandel, a six-minute news video titled "Florian Looking For Victory at UFN" reveals that a UFC fighter - possibly Kenny Florian - does not want to lose at the SpikeTV-broadcasted event, and in fact wants to emerge from his bout with a "W". If true, this is news that will no doubt send shockwaves through the MMA community - and make Savage and Mandel the Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of our generation. Stay tuned for more as this situation develops.

CSAC Takes a Stand Against Hooligans and Whippersnappers

California State Athletic Commission Executive Director Armando Garcia defended his decision to have fighter Nick Diaz removed from Saturday's EliteXC/Strikeforce event at a Sacramento press conference yesterday, citing Diaz's "obvious lack of respect for his elders" and vowing to take a stand against "hooligans and whippersnappers". Waving a cane and shaking his fist, Garcia promised to clean up MMA in California, and angrily proclaimed, "No more tattooed fellows, no more cussing and no more damn Mexicans!" The always dapper "Gentleman" Drew Fickett will now take Diaz's place on Saturday night's televised main card.