We still don’t know if we’ll get a super fight between welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre and middleweight champion Anderson Silva one day, but at least it seems that UFC President Dana White is on our side with this thing. “I think we’re pretty close,” White told Ariel Helwani on Fuel TV’s UFC Tonight. “I mean if Georges St. Pierre beats [Carlos] Condit, that could be the next fight.”

In other words, St. Pierre vs. Condit isn’t “meaningless” after all. And if GSP vs. Anderson does happen, White told Helwani that it would likely be held at a 180-pound catch weight.

“At one point it sounded like Anderson wanted to go to 170 and take Georges’ welterweight title,” White said. “That was what he was talking at one point. Then it was 180 as a catchweight, because Georges doesn’t want to go to 185, he’s going to stay at ’70. He said if ‘I had to make the move to go to ’85, I’d have to stay at ’85.’ We figured that a 180-pound catchweight makes sense.”

Sounds good to us, and Silva has seemed to do everything he could to signal that he wants that fight (from insulting the entire middleweight division to expressing a willingness to drop down in weight) but there’s a lot standing in the way of that dream match-up from happening. First of all, Condit could beat St. Pierre in November.

‘Oh Africa Brave Africa’. It was… a laugh riot.

By George Shunick

Famed boxing trainer Freddie Roach recently appeared on MMAJunkie.com Radio, and he delivered the goods. Sure, he touched on Amir Kahn’s upcoming fight, Pacquiao, and certain MMA fighters, but none of that matters. Freddie Roach almost ate a man’s eye in a street fight. Not only did he do this, but he talks about it with the gleeful amusement more befitting a child recalling his favorite prank than a grown man describing how he used his teeth to transform another human being into an unwilling cyclops.

The conversation begins with Roach discussing Amir Khan’s fight against Danny Garcia, but quickly veers into MMA. At one point, Roach claims that one of the reasons that boxing has fallen behind MMA in terms of pay-per-view numbers is that “[boxing has] promoters that don’t like each other, and they bring their personal life into boxing.” Fortunately, MMA hasn’t had to suffer overly emotional promoters who hold grudges, so it’s still in good shape. Then Roach hits on a number of topics, including…

(That moment when you get hit so hard you shit your pants in front of the whole gym.) 

Having worked with everyone from Manny Pacquiao to Andrei Arlovksi, it’s fair to say that Freddie Roach knows damn near all there is to know about the stand up game.

So when he sat down alongside current WBA (super), WBC, and The Ring super middleweight champion Andre Ward on last night’s edition of Inside MMA, the inevitable question came up: who does he think are the top five best boxers in MMA?

Check out Freddie’s top five, along with his thoughts on GSP vs. A. Silva, after the jump.

Interview starts @ 8:30, but why hurry past Arianny’s cleavage?

With Anderson’s Seagal-inspired KO of Vitor Belfort last week, we are officially halfway toward the long awaited GSP-Silva super fight. Only Jake Shields stands in the way of this epic battle, and since we don’t even want to think about him fucking this up for us, let’s get ahead of ourselves and listen in on renowned boxing trainer Freddie Roach as he chats with Joe Rogan about GSP’s progression in boxing and his take on the potential match-up between GSP and Silva.

When Georges St-Pierre enlisted the help of revered boxing coach Freddie Roach, it demonstrated that the UFC welterweight champ is still continuing to work towards shoring up all of the weaknesses in his overall game. Having worked with Canadian Olympic boxers Otis and Howard Grant for most of his MMA career, most would assume that GSP had his boxing covered, but that’s why he’s a UFC champ any we’re all armchair fighters.

Roach, who revealed in the interview above with FightHubTV.com that St-Pierre asked him to be in his corner for his upcoming UFC 124 rematch with Josh Koscheck in Montreal but he had to decline due to commitments with other fighters, says that the French Canadian has all the tools to become a great pugilist.

"He told me that he thought he knew boxing until he met me. He’s improving all the time…His boxing ability is getting a lot better. He’s getting a lot looser. We tried to loosen him up. He’s not so tight like normal and he’s a great student. I show him something and next day, he’s got it pretty much down. I’d say, ‘Georges, how long did you practice that move in the mirror?’ and he’d look at me and say, ‘How did you know?’ ‘Come on,’ I said, ‘Nobody can improve that quickly.’ He’s a great student and a great guy; I wish him the best."

(Photo courtesy of Yahoo! Sports)

Of the many things that set UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre apart from his competition, one of the most notable is his willingness to travel great lengths in order to improve elements of his game. While many fighters are content to hang out in one camp, GSP has traveled to Brazil for jiu-jitsu training, spent time learning from the Canadian wrestling team, and regularly leaves his Montreal home base to bang with the all-star team at Jackson’s MMA in Albuquerque or drill his Muay Thai at the Wat in New York. The latest piece of the puzzle is a familiar one: St. Pierre is now working on his boxing with legendary trainer Freddie Roach, at the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood. As he told Yahoo! Sports:

“It is time to focus on my boxing. When I get to the other side of my career I don’t want to be one of those fighters who have been hit too many times, so they keep getting knocked out. If you have the opportunity to work with someone like Freddy, you take advantage…I’ve only been here a few days with Freddie and each time I left feeling like I was better.”

GSP plans on spending a week with Roach before taking off to film TUF 12, opposite Josh "Booooooo!" Koscheck. As for Roach, the soft-spoken trainer is beginning to occupy a very unique place in the world of MMA.

(Little known fact about Roach? He absolutely loves Hitler jokes. Poor guy can’t help himself.)

Renowned boxing trainer Freddie Roach may not understand what this MMA jazz is all about, nor does he have much of an appreciation for the ground game (with the possible exception of Fedor Emelianenko’s armbars, I think they’re called), but he sees what’s going on with the UFC’s James Toney signing, and he doesn’t care for it. As he told Crave Online recently:

“I think they’re using James as a way to say MMA fighters are better than boxers. If he fights a quality ground guy, once he goes to the ground he’s gonna get killed. But If a guy chooses to stand up with James, James is gonna destroy him. That’s why they call him “Lights Out”. I really don’t think there’s one fighter in MMA that could stand with James.”

And thus, Roach exposes the great dark secret about the UFC’s latest maneuver. Signing Toney is just a ruse to make all boxers look inferior to MMA fighters. It is, at the very least, an interesting theory. It’s not without its problems, however.

All that hype, and it only came down to six minutes of utter domination. If you caught the light-welterweight title fight between Manny Pacquiao and Ricky Hatton last night, you saw more proof that Pac-Man is one of the best boxers to have ever lived. The video is above; watch as Pacquiao opens with a 10-7 first round on the strength of two knockdowns, then delivers the finishing blow at the end of the second. Pac’s trainer Freddie Roach had predicted a third-round knockout via left hook, explaining later that Hatton tends to leave himself open when he throws his jab. Turns out, Pacquiao is even better than he thought. Could Money Mayweather be next?

(Is there any situation not improved by sound effects from Super Mario Bros.?  Props: MMA Scraps.)

Freddie Roach has figured out what went wrong for Andrei Arlovski on Saturday night.  It’s simple really.  Fighting the world’s best heavyweight proved too easy.  This bored Andrei, prompting him to try the flying knee that he was not awake long enough to finish:

"He made a young man’s mistake," Roach told MMAInsider backstage. "It was too easy for him. He was winning the fight handily I thought, controlling the fight like we planned. He got a little cocky, and he tried the flying knee from too far away, no setup, and he paid for it. … But Fedor swings hard, that’s his thing. He probably had his eyes closed, but he just got lucky, I think. If we had followed a more disciplined fight, and kept to the game plan, I think it was going to be easy."

I agree with Roach on one point: Arlovski did make a mistake.  As for the rest of his explanation, it’s just more evidence that Roach doesn’t understand the differences between MMA and boxing.  In the boxing world, a man who wins via one-punch knockout after landing fewer punches than his opponent until that point is almost always the beneficiary of a lucky punch.  Not so in MMA, especially when that man is Fedor.

You can say he got lucky.  You can accuse him of closing his eyes and hoping for the best.  But you can’t explain away his record.  Arlovski may have helped him out with that mental error, but a right hand like Fedor’s sure improves a man’s luck considerably.

("Step 1: Kiss a picture of Manny Pacquiao every night before you go to bed." Photo courtesy of ESPN.)

From a new MMA Weekly interview with Andrei Arlovski‘s famed boxing coach, Freddie Roach:

Hear that, Tim Sylvia? Angles. If you think that Freddie’s "fight us like a man" line implies a lack of appreciation for MMA and its more subtle ground elements, you’d be correct. As he explains, “I think it’s boring. I saw one fight where the guy just laid on the other guy the whole fight and he won.” But Roach understands that Arlovski’s opponent could wind up scoring a victory on the canvas:

It must be nice to live in a world where you never have to worry about the armbar (I guess it’s called). But I don’t live in that world, and you don’t live in that world, and Andrei Arlovski sure as hell doesn’t live in that world. Can sharp boxing be enough to stave off Fedor’s Hydra-like attack? We’ll find out on the 24th, but my money’s still on the chubby guy.

(“It was a big, white, semi-truck. The license plate was JACKLINKS.”)

“The ref [Mario Yamasaki] was going, ‘Eh, is [Couture] OK?’ Mario was trying to give him time [to recover]. There’s a fine line between that and [allowing] too many punches. When I saw Randy go back down, I thought we had crossed that line.” — Dana White on the stoppage in UFC 91′s Lesnar/Couture fight, which some questioned as dangerously late.

“He came in a couple days ago and I introduced him to Manny and the other trainers. We picked out a time…and he’s gonna come in and start training with me. I hear he’s a great striker and I hope we can help him improve even more.” — Beloved boxing trainer Freddie Roach on his new protege, Anderson Silva.

“I’d fight him. The thing about a Machida fight that isn’t appealing to me is that stylistically, Machida is kind of a boring fighter. That’s not a putdown. He’s very, very effective. He’s good at what he does. He’s constantly backing away and forces his opponent into mistakes, and that’s how he catches you. In order to beat him, you really have to fight an intelligent fight, and I think that by not overcommitting yourself on things, it’s going to create a situation where you’re not putting on a fight that’s really exciting for the fans.” — Rich Franklin stating the obvious regarding a potential rematch with Lyoto Machida. Machida gave Franklin his first career loss via TKO at the Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye Festival in 2003.

(Props: Sherdog via BloodyElbow)

When Andrei Arlovski steps into the cage with Roy Nelson tomorrow night at EliteXC: Heat, one thing is guaranteed — his hands will be ready. The Pitbull has been training with boxing guru Freddie Roach at Wild Card Boxing Club since before his Affliction: Banned bout against Ben Rothwell. The above video features Roach discussing his star MMA pupil, claiming Arlovski could have a successful boxing career and lauding his willingness to learn: “My best champion Manny Pacquiao has great work ethic and Andrei’s right there with him, and that’s why they’re world-class fighters.” Will Arlovski be able to execute Roach’s “punches in bunches” philosophy en route to a win over Big Country? (Answer: Yes, probably.)

In the lead-up to Affliction’s Andrei Arlovski-Ben Rothwell fight I’ve heard the same question from MMA fans and analysts again and again: how much of a difference will Freddie Roach make for Andrei Arlovski? For those of you unfamiliar with Roach, he’s a former pro boxer and world-renowned boxing trainer who has recently begun working with Arlovski and who will corner “The Pitbull” on Saturday night. Naturally, it’s got to be a help to have someone like that working with you on your striking, but is it really the difference-maker many people think it is?

In order to get on board with that thinking you have to go along with two basic assumptions: 1) MMA fighters are generally far behind boxers in their technical striking ability, and 2) what a boxing trainer knows about striking is relevant and translatable for an MMA fight.

The first point is mostly valid. Because boxers only use their fists and only fight using a limited array of options, they’re probably going to be better at using them, if for no other reason than the fact that they can afford to spend more time on it. Just like a decathlete can do a lot of things well, he still can’t throw a discus better than the guys who do nothing else.

But it’s the transition to the second point that gets me. Boxing is a different sport. Some of the conventional wisdom in boxing — even basic fundamentals regarding stance, hand positioning, and defense — don’t necessarily work for MMA because of the threat of takedowns, kicks and knees, and the size difference in the gloves. So why is it necessarily so great to be coached by a boxing trainer?

(I still refuse to believe that Tim Sylvia is banging her.)

It looks like Andrei Arlovski is taking advantage of the competitive freedom that comes from not being under contract with the UFC. According to ESPN.com, the former UFC heavyweight champ will make his professional boxing debut on September 13th in Las Vegas, in the opening fight on the Joel Casamayor vs. Juan Manuel Marquez card, which will be shown live on HBO PPV; an opponent hasn’t been announced yet.

Previously, we reported that Arlovski has been training with Freddie Roach at Wild Card Gym in L.A., and that Roach would be cornering Arlovski during his Affliction: Banned bout against Ben Rothwell on July 19th. We’re curious to see if their partnership is more than just a one-off, and if Arlovski tries to maintain careers in both MMA and boxing simultaneously. With world-class training from Roach, along with Arlovski’s natural abilities, the Pitbull could potentially become a two-sport star. Stay tuned…

Legendary boxing guru Freddie Roach — who has trained a long list of superstars including Oscar De La Hoya, Mike Tyson, Bernard Hopkins, and James Toney — will enter the world of mixed martial arts on July 19th, when he’ll be working the corner of Andrei Arlovski at Affliction: Banned. According to Fighthype, Arlovski has been developing his hands at Roach’s Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles, in preparation for his bout against Miletich-trained bruiser Ben Rothwell.

Roach fought as a pro boxer from 1978-1986, beginning his career on a 26-1 run before retiring with a 39-13 record. Casual boxing fans may know him best from his appearances on De La Hoya/Mayweather 24/7, the HBO documentary series that followed his training of the Golden Boy. For your viewing pleasure, here’s a short HBO feature on Roach, which details his rough upbringing, boxing career, transition to training, and recent battle against Parkinson’s disease.