From Canadian MMA:

Dear CanadianMMA Fans,

The CBC is doing its first ever television segment on Mixed Martial Arts this Sunday, May 28th. It’s a 30 minute segment mainly profiling Georges St-Pierre and David Loiseau in their fights at UFC 58: USA vs Canada.

The latter portion of the segment will feature an interview with yours truly, Marco Antico, speaking about the impediments of legalizing MMA in Ontario and a rebuttal from the Ontario Athletic Commissioner, Ken Hayashi.

The news program will be part of CBC News Sunday. It will air in the morning at 10am and then repeat in the evening at 10pm. An extended 60 minute version is also planned for the summer time.

It is encouraging to see a highly respectable news agency such as the CBC do a feature on MMA and it was truly my pleasure to be involved with this project. Raising the public’s awareness on this issue is very important in achieving our ultimate goal. Therefore, please feel free to pass this information along to anyone you know who may be interested.

Sincerely,
Marco Antico
www.CanadianMMA.com

Check out the salaries of the fighters from UFC 58:

MMA WEEKLY – Your #1 Source for Daily MMA News, Interviews, Multimedia, and More

Tom Murphy – $5,000 to show $5,000 to win. Total $10,000
Icho Laurenas – $3,000
Josh Lambert – $2,000 to show $2,000 to win. Total $4,000
Rob McDonald – $5,000
Sam Stout – $2,000 to show $2,000 to win. Total $4,000
Spencer Fisher – $8,000
Mark Hominick – $2,000 to show $2,000 to win. Total $4,000
Yves Edwards – $8,000
Nathan Marquart – $15,000 to show $15,000 to win. Total $30,000
Joe Doerkson – $5,000
George St Pierre – $24,000 to show $24,000 to win. $48,000
B.J. Penn – $25,000
Mike Swick – $5,000 to show $5,000 to win. $10,000
Seve Vigneault – $2,000
Rich Franklin – $16,000 to show $16,000 to win. $34,000
David Loiseau – $9,000
TOTAL PURSE $209,000

The UFC 57 card was three times the amount as this past UFC 58 card as UFC 57 paid out $666,000 for the total purse. Liddell and Couture combined for $500,000.

Damn, most of these guys get paid peanuts for what they do!

And keep in mind that 99.9999% of the work is done outside of the Octagon, and from what I understand, they don’t get paid for putting in the hours of blood, sweat and tears for the preparations of a fight. But it goes to show that these fighters really love what they do if they’re fighting for this kind of money.

Check out what Dr. J and FightOpinion had to say about this.

Yves Edwards (USA) vs Mark Hominick (Canada)

Winner: Mark Hominick

How? Triangle choke/arm bar at 1:52 of round 2

My Comments:

Mark Hominick threw some solid liver shots and a knee to the body that hurt Yves Edwards (gotta start practicing those liver shots!). Ended up on the ground and into Hominick’s triangle that transitioned to a triangle arm bar after an attempted pick-up slam by Edwards. (Note to self: if someone tries to slam you while you’re trying to slap on a triangle choke, grab a hold of their legs and try to make them fall)

Joe Doerksen (Canada) vs Nathan Marquardt (USA)

Winner: Nathan Marquardt

How? Unanimous Decision

My Comments:

Pretty exciting fight. I’m not sure how well those Superman punches work, as Bas Rutten always says to have both feet planted on the ground when you punch.

Nathan Marquardt is a former King of Pancrase, and hopefully we see him fight Rich Franklin in the future.

Georges St. Pierre (Canada) vs B.J. Penn (USA)

Winner: Georges St. Pierre

How? Split Decision

My Comments:

GSP won this fight, but his face looked pretty bad after. He was supposedly poked in the eye by Penn, but when you’re punching with MMA gloves and your fingers are free to do as they please, accidents like that are bound to happen. Georges St. Pierre’s also took an uppercut that just clip his nose…ouch.

I don’t think Penn was pressing the action enough in this fight. He tried an omaplata in the final seconds of the last round, but it was too little too late.

Georges St. Pierre gets his title shot with Matt Hughes. Nice!

Steve Vigneault (Canada) vs Mike Swick (USA)

Winner: Mike Swick

How? Guillotine Choke (or what he calls the “Swick-o-tine”) at 2:09 of the first round

My Comments:

This is the longest fight of Mike Swick’s UFC career at 2 minutes and 9 seconds. I think we’re going to see a lot more of this guy in the future.

As he said in his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan, check out his MySpace website and his official website:

http://www.myspace.com/mikeswick

http://www.mikeswick.com

Rich Franklin (USA) vs David Loiseau (Canada)

Winner: Rich Franklin

How? Unanimous Decision

My Comments:

Absolutely dominating fight for Rich Franklin, even though he ended up breaking his hand and injuring his foot. I was hoping to see more of a see-saw battle, but this was very one sided.

David Loiseau threw some kicks, did some running and defending…that pretty much sums up what he did the entire fight. I’m not exactly sure what his game plan was coming in, but I was expecting more offence on Loiseau’s part.

The “Crow” Loiseau did land a solid left hook on Franklin…but after that it was more of the same.

Total domination by Rich Franklin.

Summary:

Overall, a solid event for the UFC. The “USA vs. Canada” theme brought some boos from the fans (towards the Canadian fighters, of course), even if they won their fight. I don’t think this would happen in Japan, because generally, they’re more respectful towards MMA athletes (and a lot more knowledgeable about the sport too), and give credit to those who fought well, win or lose.

But even though the American fans were booing Georges St. Pierre after he won, he didn’t take any offence and told everyone that he loves his fans, no matter what nationality they are. He also mentioned that in preparation for this fight, he was training with an American in New York.

He said it best (borrowing from Genki Sudo), that “We Are All One”. That gave me a warm fuzzy inside.

There’s a saying that goes, “Nothing wins more than superior preparation”, and more specifically to martial arts, “the more I sweat in training, the less I bleed in the ring” (or in this case, the Octagon).

Although most people interested in mixed martial arts would rather watch, read and hear about the fights and the results, I personally like finding out how each fighter prepares for their upcoming fights.  There are many aspects to training in marital arts, and among them is strength training and conditioning.

David Loiseau has been training at the Poliquin Performance Center in Montreal to prepare for his fight with Rich Franklin at UFC 58.

For those of you who don’t know, the Poliquin Performance Center is headed and founded by Charles Poliquin, a strength training and conditioning “guru”.  He’s worked with NFL, NHL, and Olympic athletes. (Check out his bio here: http://www.charlespoliquin.com/poliquin.php)

According to the website, Loiseau is being trained by Marc André Duval and Eric Falstrault.  It doesn’t look like Loiseau is being trained by Charles Poliquin himself, but I’m sure they’re still using the famed “Poliquin Principals”.

Here’s what the guys at Poliquin Performance in Montreal had to say about David Loiseau:

David trains mainly to increase his strength and explosiveness but without raising his bodyweight in order to make his weight category.

David trains 3-4 times a week. His resistance training is coordinated with his technical training sessions. His system is designed this way to ensure that he is not exposed to too much training volume and overtraining.

David follows a strict but healthy nutritional and Biosignature program in order for him to keep his muscle mass and stay at a very low body fat %.

And…Here’s David Loiseau’s Comments:

As an ultimate fighter, it is vital to maintain a specific body weight. With the direction and advice of the Poliquin Performance Center in Montréal, I was given a specialized training program, diet and supplementation plan that would allow me lose the maximum amount of body fat without losing my hard earned muscle mass.

They made me realize that, by losing muscle, it would impede my stamina, speed, and reaction time. In just two weeks, I lost 6% body fat, gained 10 pounds of lean muscle mass and I feel stronger and faster than ever.

Anything is possible as long as you fall into the right hands. Without their influence, I would not be the dedicated athlete I am today.

There’s a sample workout of Loiseau’s training, but it only shows a couple of exercises.

If you watched UFC: All Access, you’ll see that Rich Franklin training is pretty hardcore, especially that non-stop weight lifting circuit. (Check out the summary at ValeTudo.com).

Mike Ferguson from the Power Station Gym (the trainer leading Rich Franklin’s circuit training hell in UFC: All Access) has a philosophy that Rich needs strength and endurance, and since UFC rounds are 5 rounds at 5 minutes each, Rich should train at 10 rounds at 5 or 10 minutes each!  I don’t know if the coaches at Poliquin Performance Center will agree to that philosophy though (or recommend their athletes use XYIENCE…does that stuff even work??)

Nevertheless, I’m sure both Rich Franklin and David Loiseau are going to come out in tip top shape tonight.  Good luck to both fighters!