New Ufc 58 Article

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From Ufc.com

No Worries from the Cool Canadians Before UFC 58Related News
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David Loiseau – You Gotta Have Faith
By Thomas Gerbasi

LAS VEGAS, March 3 – If the big fight atmosphere is getting to David Loiseau and Georges St. Pierre before their career-defining bouts at UFC 58 Saturday night, they didn’t show it at today’s weigh-in before a raucous crowd at the Mandalay Bay Events Center.

Both Canadian standouts, who, like all the fighters on UFC 58’s eight bout card, made weight for tomorrow night’s fights, were full of smiles and confidence as they entered the curtained off arena to the roar of the assembled diehards who showed up for the weigh-in.

Loiseau weighed in at 185 for his challenge of UFC middleweight champion Rich Franklin, who also made the class limit of 185. St. Pierre, who faces returning superstar BJ Penn in one of the most highly-anticipated bouts of recent years, weighed in at the welterweight limit of 170. Penn was a pound less at 169.

UFC veteran Renato ‘Charuto’ Verissimo, a long-time coach and training partner of Penn, the former UFC welterweight champion, says his charge is ready for whatever St. Pierre brings to the table.

“The training’s been really good and we’ve had a lot of help,” said Verissimo. “Allan Goes came by, Matt Lindland, Josh Koscheck, Josh Thomson, and myself, so everything was the way that you want it – a lot of different training and sparring, so he’s ready.”

Interestingly enough, there will be fans in attendance and tuning in to the pay-per-view telecast that may not have even seen Penn, who returns to the UFC for the first time in over two years. What should they expect from Hawaii’s ‘Prodigy’?

“I think they’ll know what BJ Penn is really about,” said ‘Charuto’. “Even if they didn’t watch BJ, they heard about him, and they want to just confirm how good he is.”

In St. Pierre, Penn will be facing one of Canada’s best, and the theme of tomorrow’s event, USA vs Canada, is interesting not just for the nationalistic slant of things, but because this will be the first time many US fans will get to see some of Canada’s best mixed martial artists in action. The person responsible for promoting and bringing over a lot of these fighters is Stephane Patry, a man who is perhaps the most influential figure in Canadian MMA.

“These guys who are fighting tomorrow night in the UFC are truly the best fighters in Canada,” said Patry. “We have some other great guys who are not on this card, like Patrick Cote, but all the TKO champions are fighting tomorrow night – (Mark) Hominick, (Sam) Stout, St. Pierre, Loiseau, and Icho (Larenas) – so I think it’s gonna be a great night for Canada. I’m very confident we’re gonna win most of these fights.”

Will the Canadians who are debuting in the UFC tomorrow night – Hominick, Stout, Larenas, Steve Vigneault, Rob MacDonald – be able to handle the UFC jitters though?

“They’re used to fighting in front of big crowds,” said Patry. “They’ve never fought in front of 12,000, but they fought in front of 6,000, and they’ve been involved in world championship bouts, so I don’t think that’s a big factor.”

We find out tomorrow night…

MMA IN CANADA – The UFC has been growing in leaps and bounds over the last few years in terms of mainstream acceptance and popularity. Is Canada experiencing the same type of growth?

“It’s pretty big,” said Patry, promoter of the TKO organization, which was the launching ground for current US stars like Loiseau and St. Pierre. “We’ve been on national television every week for the last four years, and we got a TV show before most people did in MMA, so the seed is pretty strong and that’s why these guys are able to train full-time and evolve like they did.”

CH-CH-CH-CHANGES – This week saw three UFC 58 fights almost bite the dust due to various injuries. To the rescue came a couple of gutsy fighters and UFC matchmaker Joe Silva, who has had cards that tried his patience with withdrawals and injuries, but nothing like this in one week.

“A week of the event, this was the worst,” admitted Silva. “I had shows where more people dropped out, but it was over a much longer period of time – it was never day after day after day.”

First to go was welterweight Diego Sanchez, who battled a virus that landed him in the hospital and forced him to be fed intravenously. That dropped his bout with John Alessio from the show.

Next, Kenny Florian’s bad back sidelined him from his UFC lightweight debut against Sam Stout. Enter Spencer Fisher, who weighed 175 pounds when he got the call two days ago.

“Spencer Fisher got the call because he had fought recently and had no injuries and was not on suspension, so he was able to do it,” said Silva. ‘He was also willing to bust his butt and lose 20 pounds in two days.

So how do you pull off that feat?

“I had help,” said Fisher right after weighing in at the lightweight limit of 155 and digging into a much-deserved pita. “Billy Rush and Josh Neer helped me; Josh sat in the sauna with me and pushed me, and of course it’s no secret that Billy Rush knows his stuff when it comes to conditioning and cutting weight.”

Despite his sacrifice though, Fisher’s glad to see the lightweight division back in the UFC.

“I’m happy that it’s back,” he said. “I’m knocking this kid out and we’ll see what’s next.”

Last, but not least, heavyweight Christophe Midoux was scratched on Friday after suffering a hernia during light sparring Thursday night. Fellow Canadian Icho Larenas walked right into his countryman’s spot against Tom Murphy.

“With Icho Larenas, we knew beforehand that we could have trouble getting Christophe Midoux into the country because of his visa, so we had him (Larenas) here already just in case he didn’t make it,” said Silva. “He was already here, already had his medicals done, so that’s why we were able to replace that fight. And he’s the TKO heavyweight champion, so he’s got some credentials.”

And 20 ½ inch biceps. It’s a tall order for Murphy, an alum of season two of The Ultimate Fighter reality show who is not only making his UFC debut, but he’s doing it against a last minute replacement..

“I found out officially today,” said Murphy. “There was talk of a change of opponent earlier because of visa issues, and I knew they brought Icho as a backup. I actually had the same thing happen to me last year in February, at King of the Cage, except they changed the opponent at the event, so I’m used to it. It doesn’t really matter.”

Murphy won that fight, against Josh Hendricks, at 1:30 of the first round. So he’s not too nervous.

“I’m just thinking about going out and dominating – taking it to him and winning the fight,” he said. “I’m trying not to focus on anything else.”

So, do you still want to be a matchmaker?

“There’s so much more to the job than just ‘oh, I’ll put my favorite fighters against my favorite fighters,’” said Silva. “It’s, can you work the deals, can you talk people into the fights, and when things blow up, can you scramble and stay on top of it and make it work?”

OFFICIAL WEIGHTS FOR UFC 58

UFC Middleweight Championship
Rich Franklin (185) vs David Loiseau (185)
BJ Penn (169) vs Georges St. Pierre (170)
Joe Doerksen (185) vs Nathan Marquardt (183)
Yves Edwards (154) vs Mark Hominick (153)
Mike Swick (185) vs Steve Vigneault (184)

Sam Stout (154) vs Spencer Fisher (155)
Rob MacDonald (204) vs Jason Lambert (202)
Tom Murphy (222) vs Icho Larenas (234)