UFC 129 Conference Call With Georges St. Pierre And Jake Shields

Added on Apr 21, 2011 by John Petit in

UFC & MMA

UFC 129 is taking place April 30th at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Canada, at the new start time 9 p.m. EST. The card is so stacked that they were forced to do two conference calls for the media to interview the fighters. Today the main event fighters, Georges St. Pierre and Jake Shields, were made available for the conference call. When all is said done, UFC 129 will end up being the biggest Mixed Martial Arts event ever held on North American soil.

GSP was considering this to be a tough fight, but they are all tough fights at this stage in the game if you are champion. He said he is putting the size of the event out of his head. He said “If I fought Jake in a basement with no one watching, maybe the pressure isn’t there. That said, I perform better under pressure. Pressure is always there. Where I am, I realize the pressure is always getting bigger.” He concluded saying its still fighting. He said “It’s the same rules, the same Octagon. I’m fighting the best regardless.”

GSP was very complimentary of his next opponent, and even confessed to picking him in his previous two fights. He said “Whenever everyone thought he would lose to Robbie Lawler, I knew Jake would win. Same thing with Dan Henderson.” Also, I am sure that many of GSP’s past opponents would argue with, GSP said “If we put Jake against any of the contenders I’ve fought, Jake would win.”

Jake Shields is coming from a camp of defending champions. Strikeforce champs Nick Diaz and Gilbert Melendez all train with Shields in California, and are helping him prepare for the fight. Jake said its a huge asset because all of those guys are around his weight, and are all highly skilled. He said he also understands that he is headed into GSP’s back yard. Shields said he isn’t coming alone, “I’ll have 20 guys coming with me into hostile territory.” He continued saying this isn’t the first time he has had to fight an opponent in their home town. He said “I fought in front of Robbie Lawler’s hometown, but it wasn’t too bad.”

Shields was very confident about where he is physically, and where he is mentally. Shields said “I mentally refuse to lose. My grappling is a different level than Fitch, Koscheck, Penn, etc. GSP has very few holes in his game, and those holes are small.” Someone brought up that GSP has brought in some ground experts to help him prepare for the fight. Shields commented “I didn’t think to much of GSP training with Roger Gracie and Braulio Estima. It’s smart of him.“ Shields said of his ground skills “I’ve taken wrestling and jiu jitsu and infused them. I don’t think there’s anyone out there that can do what I do. Same for GSP. “

The fight will headline a stacked card, and will be surrounded by the first UFC Expo to be held in Canada. The only complaint Shields had about the whole experience was how much press he was doing.