Who else wants to be a millionaire MMA fighter?

Check out the article from the Canadian Press below:

Georges St. Pierre gets another crack at UFC welterweight belt

TORONTO (CP) – Georges St. Pierre is on his way to becoming Canada’s first million-dollar mixed martial arts fighter.

On Friday the charismatic 170-pounder from Montreal was granted a second shot at UFC welterweight champion Matt Hughes.

There is no date yet for the title fight, but the St. Pierre camp expects it in early September. Las Vegas is the likely site.

Ultimate Fighting Championship president Dana White made the championship bout announcement Friday in a taped message during a Toronto appearance by the Montreal fighter and lightweights Mark Hominick and Sam Stout, who train out of London, Ont.

The title bout adds to St. Pierre’s status in the sport – and his bank account.

“He’s making serious money,” said Stephane Patry, St. Pierre’s manager and president of the Montreal-based TKO promotions company.

“(In 2005) he made close to $350,000. And if everything goes as planned, this year he’s going to make close to a million. He’s making a lot of money with his fights, and also a lot of money with his endorsements.

“It’s safe to say he’s going to be a millionaire.”

More on Georges St. Pierre Soon to be A Millionaire

Ever wonder how Bruce Lee would do in today’s MMA or K1 competitions?

Well, take a look at the video below…

The Bruce Lee impersonator is Tony Valente, and the guy he’s fighting is Norifumi “Kid” Yamamoto (Look how happy BJ Penn is giving these guys flowers before the fight!).

Also in the video is Valente, sporting a similar yellow jumpsuit that Bruce Lee wore in “The Game of Death”, fighting Takayuki Kohiruimaki in K1 MAX.

The fighter introduction of this guy is hilarious!  I’m pretty sure that he’s not following the teachings in “The Tao of Jeet Kune Do” (which I think is basically all about mixed martial arts anyways), but rather he’s just imitating the moves Bruce Lee uses in the movies.

I’d love to see this guy fight Genki Sudo…

[gv data="fRQpq5mrc_0"][/gv]

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.

If you watched UFC 58’s fight between BJ Penn and George St. Pierre, you’ll see at the end of the fight Penn trying to pull off a crazy submission hold called the “gogoplata”.

Stephen from mmatoronto.blogspot.com writes about it in his blog, and there are links to instructions on how to pull it off (note: it looks like you need pretty good flexibility in your legs to execute this submission).

Here’s a video showing the Gogoplata being used in an actual fight (credits to edgerrin32 from Sherdog’s forum).

[gv data="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?videoUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fvp.video.google.com%2Fvideodownload%3Fversion%3D0%26secureurl%3DmQAAADPLExn_TXtHpSZ1_9DO0DFpIxYSPg4VKAwz-ZYvHCud3dDmRox26SSitsBrVFeKu-GMnxmzn9dMN7-gRzCLtZD4oydD3kqyAZrbUoRCS9QXjkyq-3mJZ0NIPISVnhSIV_C6K-S8khHEhy9VaBRX-O7IFJix52dQDL3TsjhDij2KuBlfq2KiBDECjfnvY11IxfsGyBm7sEJlQuDcHWqoeb8%26sigh%3DDvqmOBox9OVkcrzzFKnx4VxTZas%26begin%3D0%26len%3D34532%26docid%3D-5292564655457014948&thumbnailUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fvideo.google.com%2FThumbnailServer%3Fcontentid%3D30ef0684504eb21d%26second%3D5%26itag%3Dw320%26urlcreated%3D1141867411%26sigh%3DrYNa37qa9keYkiqWxm4Pz6So1C0&playerId=-5292564655457014948" allowScriptAccess="sameDomain" quality="best" bgcolor="#ffffff" scale="noScale" wmode="window" salign="TL" FlashVars="playerMode=embedded"][/gv]

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.