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“NEW YORK — The best welterweight fighter in the world lives with fear. Georges St. Pierre fears losing. He fears mental lapses. He fears being knocked out, like he was three years ago, or being forced to submit, like he was three years before that.

“I am always afraid,” St. Pierre said. “No matter what. A guy who is not afraid is a liar.”

St. Pierre (19-2) is without parallel in his 170-pound division, a supreme athlete who might move up a weight class or switch sports in the near-future. In the direct present, he will headline UFC 111 tonight at the Prudential Center in Newark against Britain’s Dan Hardy (23-6).

Yet he retains his apprehension. He practices positive visualization to dull his worries, but he still loses sleep. He loathes waiting for fights. The octagon does not provide catharsis, either.

“I’m uncomfortable,” St. Pierre said. “You’re never in a comfort zone, because the fight can change in a split second.”

Fans might wonder why St. Pierre, a 28-year-old French-Canadian ranked near the top of most pound-for-pound lists in the sport, feels fear. But fear is part of what drives him. It keeps him sharp. He is a man who avenged both of his losses in UFC — Matt Hughes in 2004, Matt Serra in 2007 — with knockout victories in the rematches. He manhandled B.J. Penn in their superfight at UFC 94 last January.

Tonight, St. Pierre is a prohibitive favorite. During a question and answer session with fans on Wednesday, a boy asked Hardy if he was nervous. “I’m aware of the possibilities at the end of the fight on Saturday night,” Hardy said. “But I’m not afraid of them.”

Hardy sports a raspberry-red Mohawk and a crooked row of bottom teeth. St. Pierre’s head is shaved clean. Besides a blemish above his left eye and a scar near his hairline, his face is unmarked. His straight teeth gleam.

St. Pierre is a clinical, precise fighter. Mistakes are rare. He excels at taking opponents to the ground and imposing his will. Some fighters talk about heart. They talk about faith. St. Pierre talks about odds. He talks about science.

“If I had to point out the ultimate Ultimate Fighter, that would be Georges St. Pierre,” said Robert Drysdale, the jiu-jitsu instructor of Frank Mir, who fights Shane Carwin for the interim heavyweight title on the undercard. “It’s the mindset. It’s the technique. It’s the mentality — he doesn’t have an ego. He trains hard.”

For this fight, St. Pierre added five pounds of muscle. He spent Christmas in the United Arab Emirates to avoid distractions, he said.

After tonight, more challenges loom. Earlier this year, St. Pierre caused a stir when he mentioned trying out for the Canadian Olympic Wrestling team. There is talk he could move up to face Anderson Silva, the world’s No. 1 pound-for-pound fighter and the middleweight (185-pound) champion since 2006.

UFC president Dana White will consider it. The company stands behind St. Pierre. The Newark show sold out in minutes. “People love this guy,” White said.

For now, St. Pierre thinks about Hardy. The fight crowds his thoughts.

As a boy growing up in Quebec, he fantasized about being a fighter. He saw his future. He still does that.

In his mind, he has already won this fight thousands of time. He met reporters during a Manhattan workout session on Thursday. There was a lull in questions, St. Pierre would say later. He began to visualize the fight during the interim.

“The closer the fight gets, the more I do it,” St. Pierre said.

He sees the octagon. He anticipates Hardy’s moves. He considers the options, then counters. He wins and sleeps well after the fight.

Then, at least for a moment, the fear subsides.”

By Andy McCullough/The Star-Ledger
you can read the original here : http://www.nj.com/sports/index.ssf/2010/03/georges_st_pierre_looks_to_def.html

UFC 110 !
Cain Velasquez vs Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira

Here is what Sergio Non has told us about UFC 110:

Up-and-coming heavyweight Cain Velasquez (8-0) scored the biggest win of his career with a first-round technical knockout of the legendary Nogueira (32-6-1) at UFC 110 in Sydney. Velasquez dropped Nogueira with a right-hook and followed it with five solid punches to the head of his stunned opponent on the mat before referee Herb Dean could step in to stop the affair just 2:20 into the bout.

The bout between Nogueira, the No. 4 heavyweight in the USA TODAY/SB Nation consensus rankings, and No. 6 Velasquez was the main event for the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s Australian debut.

Nogueira found himself under pressure from the start. Although Velasquez often relies on his wrestling to control opponents on the ground, this time he chose to trade strikes rather than risk being caught by the jiu-jitsu of Nogueira, who has 20 submission wins.

“I just tried to keep focus, and when I got into good positions, tried to beat him to the punch,” Velasquez said.

He did that consistently, with constant movement and relatively sharp boxing technique for an MMA fighter. The final exchange started with Velasquez’s glancing left hook, followed by a right hook that found its target even as Nogueira was trying to throw a right-hand counter of his own.

“He had fast hands tonight,” Nogueira said. “He deserved to win. … He was an upcoming guy. He’s now one of the best fighters in the heavyweight division. He’s a good guy.”

Nogueira won titles in UFC and Pride Fighting Championships with high-level jiu-jitsu and an unmatched capacity to recover from punishment. But he has lost two of his last three fights via technical knockout, and in both defeats he appeared slow and unable to shake off solid blows as easily as he did a few years ago.

Velasquez’s victory could lead to a title shot. UFC President Dana White this week said that the winner of Nogueira-Velasquez might be the next challenger for heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar if the winner of Shane Carwin-Frank Mir next month suffers injuries that require a lengthy medical suspension.

By Sergio Non (original at http://content.usatoday.com/communities/mma/post/2010/02/velasquez-topples-nogueira-in-ufc-110-heavyweight-clash/1)

Kampmann is mixed martial artist, born in April 17, 1982 in Aarhus, Denmark.
He made his debut at UFC Fight Night 6 as a late replacement for Kalib Starnes.
In his debut with the UFC, Kampmann defetead opponent Crafton Wallace by first-round submission.

Steve Cofield explains way Kampamman gave a no-go to UFC 111 in hist article from yahoo sports (http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Kampmann-wants-to-make-sure-you-understand-why-h?urn=mma,218957)

Martin Kampmann was looking forward to getting back in the title chase with another win at UFC 111 against Ben Saunders in March. That won’t happen because apparently someone took a hatchet to his eyebrow (photo after the jump). It has to be one of the nastiest cuts we’ve ever seen.

Here’s hoping for a quick recovery and that Martin didn’t try another one of his home stitch jobs (pictured on the right).

Kampmann stitched up a cut around the same eye back in 2008. That time it was just above the eyelid.

Jake Ellenberger steps up now to face Saunders.

We are very eager to see again Kampmann again fighting.

Here you can see Randy Couture (who is 46) and Mark Coleman (who is 45).

These two guys have combined 27 years of prizefighting experience accrued.

They have been around MMA for more than a decade though exceeding the typical life expectancy for a combat sports athlete.

Read more about them here http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=4886258&name=mma

Let's see what  Jamie Penick, Editor-in-Chief at MMATorch has to say about about this future meeting: (you can find the original article here: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/UFC_2/article_4209.shtml)

About between two Xtreme Couture fighters is on its way to UFC 115 in June, as MMAWeekly.com reports that Tyson Griffin and Evan Dunham will meet in a lightweight bout in the UFC's first trip to Vancouver. Both fighters trained at the Las Vegas based gym for their most recent bouts, but the report states that Dunham will head elsewhere to train for this fight. Griffin hasn't fought since last September, where he picked up perhaps the most impressive victory of his career in a first round knockout over Hermes Franca. He was set to return in January against Jim Miller, but for the first time in his career had to pull out of the fight due to injury. Dunham moved his undefeated record to 10-0 in January with an extremely impressive armbar submission over Ultimate Fighter season eight winner Efrain Escudero, a win that earned him "Submission of the Night" honors. He's won all three of his Octagon appearances, defeating Per Eklund and Marcus Aurelio before the Escudero fight. UFC 115 will be the fourth UFC event to take place in Canada, and the first in Vancouver after three trips to Montreal. It is expected to play host to the third matchup between Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz, who will fight following the eleventh season of the Ultimate Fighter where they will coach teams against one another. Penick's Analysis: Tyson Griffin always puts on a show, and that's evidenced by five "Fight of the Night" awards in the UFC. His two career losses have been by decision, in "Fight of the Night" winners, to former UFC Lightweight Champion Sean Sherk and to B.J. Penn's next challenger Frankie Edgar three years ago. His killer instinct and ability to finish has been questioned many times and it has dogged him a bit in the lead up to previous fights, but he seemed to get over that hump against Franca. This is a huge fight for him, as a victory over a very capable Dunham will put him just a fight or two away from perhaps getting his first Title shot in the UFC. Penn has gone through many challengers, so if Griffin can win this fight and one or two against other top contenders or fighters that have already had a shot at Penn, he may very well get to that pinnacle in this division. For Dunham, this is a huge opportunity to defeat a fighter that has only been beaten by Championship caliber fighters. Already with an undefeated record and coming off of the hugely impressive submission victory over Escudero, Dunham is opening more eyes to him, and if he can pull this one off it will open many, many doors to him in the UFC and it will allow him to get even bigger fights. This is a great matchup and should be an extremely exciting fight for the Vancouver fans.