GSP vs. Carlos Condit, Hendricks vs. Kampmann UFC 154

http://mmajunkie.com/news/29129/st-pierre-vs-condit-hendricks-vs-kampmann-targeted-for-ufc-154-in-montreal.mma

November 17th in Montreal.

Nice set up.

Kampmann is gonna get tossed around.

bigbeastcardinal12 wrote:

Kampmann is gonna get tossed around.

Which typically means he's going to win.

Kamp will win.

I'm gonna pick against Kampmann again and he will no doubt get blasted early by Hendricks. I'm assuming after that he'll probably win

Love this, winner meets winner.

wow hendricks and kampmann is a great fight hard to pick a winner there. GSP by decision in the other one.

what if GSP gets beat?

Birdofthad wrote:

what if GSP gets beat?

What if Big Foot rides the Loch Ness monster into the cage and kills them both

freakzilla wrote:

Birdofthad wrote:

what if GSP gets beat?

What if Big Foot rides the Loch Ness monster into the cage and kills them both

Loch Ness monster would stomp Big Foot's ass.

This, if it works out, will be an awesome night!

http://mmajunkie.com/news/29782/dana-white-ufc-champ-georges-st-pierre-still-on-schedule-for-ufc-154-return.mma
CALGARY – As expected recovering UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre is still being targeted for a return at UFC 154.

The event takes place in the Canadian's home country on Nov. 17, when Montreal's Bell Centre plays host to the pay-per-view event.

"Barring complications" with St-Pierre's knee injury, UFC president Dana White today said he still wants "Rush" on the card.

"He's training, and as far as I know, everything is good," White today told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). "I haven't heard anything negative out of that camp at all. It's all positive."

St-Pierre (22-2 MMA, 16-2 UFC), of course, is slated to meet interim titleholder Carlos Condit (28-5 MMA, 5-1 UFC) in a title-unification bout upon his return. UFC officials hope it'll be at UFC 154, where top contenders Johny Hendricks and Martin Kampmann also are expected to clash.

A troublesome knee injury ultimately resulted in the champ's ACL surgery back in December. St-Pierre has said he's ahead of his 10-month recovery schedule, though no firm dates have been given for his return.

Condit, who won the interim belt with a February win over Nick Diaz at UFC 143, opted to wait for the champ rather than take another fight and risk his big-money opportunity with St-Pierre.

St-Pierre, one of MMA's top pound-for-pound fighters, most recently earned a decision victory over Jake Shields at UFC 129 in April 2011. He's since won nine straight fights while posting six consecutive title defenses over the likes of Jon Fitch, B.J. Penn and Josh Koscheck.

http://mmajunkie.com/news/30422/ufc-154-odds-champ-georges-st-pierre-opens-as-350-favorite-over-carlos-condit.mma
Questions may linger about UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre surgically repaired knee, but to the folks who put their money where their mouths are, it's apparently not an overriding concern.

With recent clearance to resume full training for his return to the cage, St-Pierre (22-2 MMA, 16-2 UFC) is now expected to meet interim champ Carlos Condit (28-5 MMA, 5-1 UFC) at UFC 154 in November.

And noted oddsmaker Joey Oddessa recently set St-Pierre as a -350 favorite.

UFC 154 takes place Nov. 17, and if officially booked, St-Pierre will fight close to home since the pay-per-view event is slated for Montreal's Bell Centre.

The -350 line makes the French Canadian a 3.5-to-1 favorite over Condit. That's substantial, but not as substantial as GSP has been in recent years.

"The last time St-Pierre was a smaller than a 5-to-1 favorite to anyone stretches all the way back to 2009 vs. (Thiago) Alves," Oddessa told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). "Condit was in the underdog role in three of his last six bout, including a loss to Martin Kampmann during the same time frame."

Condit, a former WEC champ, claimed the interim title in February with a close and strategic win over Nick Diaz. Rather than risk losing a big-money fight with St-Pierre, he's waited on the sidelines for the champ to return for their title-unification bout.

"Condit was about a 2-to-1 underdog against Diaz in the bout that catapulted him to a title shot," said Oddessa, who can be found on Twitter at @mmaodds. "It's a solid matchup between an overachieving veteran in Condit against one of the most popular and successfull champions in UFC history, one who is carrying a lot of pressure and some rust into the octagon after a long layoff."

In fact, Condit's overachiever status (he's 13-1 since 2006, after all) could move the line as we get closer to the event, especially when considering what would be a 19-month layoff for St-Pierre, Oddessa said.

"Yearlong layoffs have been the kiss of death for fighters since the UFC expanded its roster and held more events," he said. "The St-Pierre vs. Condit [line] has held stable, but I can see potential for late support for Condit carrying the price lower than -300 by fight time. Most casual players aren't comfortable laying higher prices on favorites despite how good they are. Jon Jones is a good example. Players look to rationalize finding 'value' in an underdog like (Vitor) Belfort that won't win.

"Condit, as much as he is overmatched on paper, should present a decent challenge to GSP when you take Condit's activity and momentum, coupled with the long layoff of GSP, into account."

http://www.mmamania.com/2012/9/14/3331928/ufc-154-georges-st-pierre-knee-injury-firas-zahabi-mma
Hear why Zahabi would have preferred to wait:

Quote :

"It was tough. I would have preferred, obviously, if he could have waited a little longer. I think it would have been the best, more ideal, but Georges really wanted to fight. The fans wanted to see him fight. The fight's coming to Montreal. I told Georges, ‘Let's do one last sparring. Let's see where you're at in sparring.' And he did great. He went all his rounds. He went with every UFC fighter. He looked fantastic, and we said, ‘Look, you're ready. Let's do it.' The only reason I said I would have liked to wait longer is because I wouldn't want to rush the healing process, not that we did, but we really did it right on the deadline. They said, ‘OK, you'll be ready for this kind of training then,' and we really hit it right away on that date, as soon as he got verified and all that."

Quote :

I like McDonald's. Three cheeseburgers, French fries, poutine with chicken McNuggets and a big Coca-Cola.

GSP

http://mmajunkie.com/news/31486/dana-white-ufc-154-already-has-registered-a-3-1-million-live-gate.mma
UFC President Dana White has no doubts next week's UFC 154 event will be a hit at the box office.

He said the Nov. 17 event, which takes place at Montreal's Bell Centre, has already registered a live-gate total of $3.1 million gate.

Additionally, with week-of-event sales and a late push, he thinks the pay-per-view event could approach the organization's previous numbers in Montreal. Even if the organization may have overpriced the tickets.

"We're still a week and a half out," White said today during a UFC 154 media call. "I heard rumblings about this gate not doing well and Georges St-Pierre not selling out (the event). We're at $3.1 million right now.

"I wouldn't say the gate sucks. The biggest gate you can do there is $4 million, which is what we did last time with Georges St-Pierre."

That event, UFC 124, saw St-Pierre shut out Josh Koscheck in the main event. The event drew 23,152 attendees for a $4.6 million gate, according to UFC officials. Tickets for the December 2010 blockbuster ranged from $75 to $600. For UFC 154, they were priced from approximately $90 to $625, which given the current economic climate, White admits may have been a tad high.

"Yeah, maybe we did overprice this one a bit much, but times are tough out there," he said. "We'll see what happens. As we get closer to the event, we'll see how it goes. But the gate, it's one of the top gates of the year with $3.1 million."

At UFC 154, St-Pierre (22-2 MMA, 16-2 UFC), the UFC's long-running welterweight champion, returns from a 19-month layoff and meets interim champ Condit (28-5 MMA, 5-1 UFC) in a title-unification bout. Additionally, in the headliner, welterweights Johny Hendricks (13-1 MMA, 8-1 UFC) and Martin Kampmann (20-5 MMA, 11-4 UFC) meet in a likely No. 1 contender's bout.

This is gonna be at my local theater also.