Training At Main Event Gym in Glemdale CA
Another great training session at the Main Event Gym in Glendale CA, on January 25th, 20102.
St. Pierre, Mousasi learn tips from each other in training session
by: Josh Gross – From Sports Illustrated
MIAMI — The longer Georges St. Pierre trains, the more the 28-year-old welterweight star feels like he’ll never know enough about mixed martial arts.
As St. Pierre moves into week two of an eight-week process to prepare for his Mar. 27 title defense in Newark, N.J., the UFC champion isn’t about to waste days, even as he’s called to the road for autograph signings and GQ magazine parties. (St. Pierre appears in an advertisement for Affliction Clothing on the inside back cover of GQ’s February issue.) Such is the case in tropical south Florida, where SI’s 2009 mixed martial artist of the year has trained twice a day during a pit stop en route to Greg Jackson’s gym in Albuquerque, N.M.
Appearing a full stone thicker than the 180 pounds he said he weighed Sunday, St. Pierre made the most of his time by seeking out young Strikeforce light heavyweight champion Gegard Mousasi.
“I see myself” in Mousasi, St. Pierre said. “But two weight classes above. He’s a great fighter. He’s very open-minded. He’s amazing. He taught me two great techniques. Those two things I learned today are worth my whole trip. I’m very happy, and I’m going to be working on it a lot.”
The pair, who met Saturday at Strikeforce’s card in Sunrise, Fla., shared laughs, compliments and tips as 20 or so onlookers sat, hushed, inside six-month-old MMA Masters, which is run by Cesar Carneiro in downtown Miami. With few people milling about on the city’s darkened rain-soaked streets, the session adopted a top-secret feel, though their attitudes reflected quite the opposite.
St. Pierre, challenged by British contender Dan Hardy at UFC 111, said he chose to work with Mousasi (28-2) because the light heavyweight “does things that he doesn’t even know he does well. He does things he doesn’t think about. He just does it. It’s really amazing. It’s something not everybody has. You can’t teach that. There is something from him that I know I can learn. If I can help him at the same time, we both are going to gain from each other. It’s a great experience.”
It’s true that up to this point, Mousasi (28-2-1) has relied on talent, ambition and will power to succeed in an increasingly competitive sport. After being exposed, albeit briefly, to St. Pierre on Sunday, Mousasi acknowledged he has a great deal to improve upon, both in his technique and approach as a professional.
“Gegard is very raw,” said Cleo Ncube, a top Canadian wrestler and one of St. Pierre’s closest training partners over the past two-and-a-half years. “He doesn’t have a real specific training regimen. He just messes around, which is such an incredible story. Today we included him in our technique session and we were working through our regular scheduled techniques. I didn’t know if he was going to pick it up, and fair enough Gegard was picking it up.”
With St. Pierre (19-2) preparing for what most expect will be his fourth consecutive title retention, Mousasi seems likely to draw physical wrestler “King” Mo Lawal in his first defense of the Strikeforce 205-pound title this April. Lessons from sessions with St. Pierre, which might include trips to New Mexico and Montreal if schedules and personalities permit, could make time spent with Dutch kickboxing great Peter Aerts and renowned wrestling coach Bert Kops more valuable, efficient experiences.
Having trained in the past with Russian heavyweight king Fedor Emelianenko, Mousasi is quite familiar with greatness. Asked to compare Emelianenko and St. Pierre, who rank among the best mixed martial artists on the planet, Mousasi suggested the UFC champion is “more athletic and technical,” while Fedor, handled by M-1, has the ability to seamlessly transfer between MMA’s different disciplines.
As Mousasi answered the question, St. Pierre, assembling his training gear after a post-workout shower, couldn’t let a compliment pass without offering several of his own.
“No, no. He’s being nice,” parried the 24-year-old kid. “That’s the problem.”
St. Pierre again took his turn on the mutual-admiration-society merry-go-round: “He’s too humble, this guy.”
Even before the kempt French-Canadian uttered his last accented syllable, Mousasi smiled.
“Look who’s talking,” he said.
After the group exited Carneiro’s gym, a potential rival to American Top Team’s dominance in the area, St. Pierre stood in front of his manager Shari Spencer — who deserves credit for shaping the fighter’s image to the point that Gatorade and Under Armour chose to go into business with him — and practiced a punching-and-moving technique that Mousasi showed him half an hour earlier.
“Gegard, like this?” he asked.
Mousasi, who learned the technique the day before, looked over and nodded his approval.
“If I could have a choice between money, fame or wisdom and knowledge, I would take wisdom first, without hesitation,” St. Pierre said. “I’m already a better fighter than I was before the practice. I have more knowledge.”
With planned retirement at 30, Gegard Mousasi searching for best career options
by Steven Marrocco on Jan 28, 2010 for MMAJUNKIE.com
Gegard Mousasi
LOS ANGELES – Strikeforce light heavyweight champion Gegard Mousasi has no plans to fight until his body fails him. When the 24-year-old hits the big 3-0, he’s out.
With that in mind, he has set strict goals for his career’s path, including a jump to heavyweight in 18 months.
Before he bulks up, though, he wants to fight six to eight times in 2010 and plans to start by fighting Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal in April. He also plans to participate in a DREAM eight-man light heavyweight tournament rumored for June.
“I’m going to try to stay very busy,” Mousasi told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) on Wednesday. “It’s better to stay in shape the whole year, fight a lot, than fight and be fat again and train hard again. I don’t like it. I like to be in shape the whole year, be in top shape, and then I’m going to take a break for one or two months (at the end of the year).”
By this time next year, he wants to settle permanently in Glendale, Calif., a Los Angeles suburb known for its vast Armenian population.
“I feel at home here,” Mousasi said as he sat in a Hilton Hotel lounge in Universal City. “Normally, I don’t like it, but I have a lot of friends. It’s very easy to adapt here. I will come with my brother so I don’t feel alone.”
Mousasi (28-2-1 MMA, 1-0 SF) signed a new four-fight deal with DREAM this past December and started the new year off with a bang and pummeled veteran Gary Goodridge into submission at the year-end “Dynamite!! 2009″ event.
“It would be awesome if I could win the (DREAM) light heavyweight title,” he said of the upcoming tournament.
But when he feels his frame has filled out, Mousasi is still dead-set on competing as a heavyweight.
“It’s going to take a lot of time,” he said. “I have to take it step by step. I cannot put so many pounds on in a short time. First, I will be a small heavyweight, and slowly I want to put more pounds on. It will take two, three years before I’m a solid heavyweight.”
On Thursday, the Armenian-born fighter meets UFC welterweight kingpin Georges St-Pierre in Miami for a few days of training and then heads to Las Vegas for another week with the champion and his camp. Wrestling and submissions are top priority.
“I think I can learn a lot,” Mousasi said. “I think I can make it difficult [for him] in training. I don’t think there’s a lot I can teach him [besides] just training as hard as possible. That’s what I’m going to do.”
He then heads back to Amsterdam to train for the first time with K-1 kickboxing legend Peter Aerts and Anderson Silva (not that one — Anderson “Braddock” Silva, a Brazilian kickboxer).
Back home, there’s opportunity to be chased outside the cage and ring.
Mousasi currently lives 30 minutes outside Amsterdam in Leiden, Netherlands, and is in the process of buying a restaurant/apartment building catered toward university students.
“It’s a good deal,” Mousasi said. “You cannot get bankrupt. Even in this economy – because in Holland, it’s a small country, and there’s always need for student rooms. There’s not much room for them. If I kick one of them out, tomorrow I will have another one. Not that I would. It’s a good investment.”
By this time next year, the landlord could have a new nickname: “The Collector”
“Better than ‘The Dreamcatcher,’” Mousasi quipped.
And seeing where his fight career is headed, he could be on the road to a big collection.
Mousasi’s first Strikeforce contract, which was inked this past August following the collapse of Affliction Entertainment, bound him to the promotion for two fights (a savvy move for an in-demand prospect). He fulfilled the first by railroading Renato “Babalu” Sobral for the 205-pound title at “Strikeforce: Carano vs. Cyborg.” The second is planned for a fight with Lawal in the second installment of “Strikeforce on CBS” in mid-April. When Mousasi spoke with MMAjunkie.com, he said his management is in the process of re-negotiating his contract.
However, a well-placed source MMAjunkie.com spoke to Wednesday evening gave strong indications that Mousasi had been signed to a new long-term fight contract with the San Jose, Calif.-based promotion.
“They wanted me to sign for six fights,” Mousasi said of the original deal. “I didn’t want that. They didn’t pay me that much. But money will come. I want to grow with Strikeforce as they grow with Showtime and CBS. I think it’s a good place to be.
“If I had it in my mind, like OK, I’m going to the UFC, then I would have gone. But I have a new contract with DREAM, so I’m planning to stay busy and fight in Strikeforce and Japan constantly.”
It’s get while the getting’s good.
“I don’t want to fight for too long,” he said. “(At) 30, I’m finished. In my mind, (I just want) the amount of money that [would give me] a good life. Anymore than that, I don’t need.
“Until I don’t have the money that I want to have, I’m basically fighting to get there. Once I’m there and I’m one of the best, maybe I will fight for a place in the sport, remembered as one of the best.
“Until then, I’m basically fighting for money.”
Mousasi Visits Glendale Gym
Written by Grant Gordon
Strikeforce light heavyweight champion Gegard Mousasi, the pound-for-pound No. 10 fighter in the world of mixed martial arts according to Yahoo! Sports, visited the Glendale Fighting Club on Tuesday night.
Gegard Mousasi watches judo students spar at the Glendale Fighting Club on Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2010. (Roger Wilson/News-Press)
He met some youngsters in the judo class of former Ultimate Fighting Championship fighter Roman Mitichyan before helping out the mixed martial arts class later that night.
Mousasi, a resident of Holland who hasn’t lost an MMA fight in more than three years and defeated Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou in November live on CBS, said it was his third time visiting Glendale.
“I feel like I’m friends with them all,” said Mousasi of the host of area fighters, including GFC proprietor Edmond Tarverdyan, Mitichyan and World Extreme Cagefighting’s Manny Gamburyan and Karen Darabedyan and Bellator Fighting Championships’ Georgi Karakhanyan. “I feel very welcome, but now I feel like it’s my second home. …I feel really comfortable here.”
Mousasi, who is 28-2-1, is set to film a live episode of “Inside MMA” in Los Angeles before leaving for Miami to train with UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre.
Known for his calm and cool demeanor, Mousasi is also regarded as a superior all-around fighter, with stellar submission and striking skills. However, coming from Holland, he does not have a judo background like many Armenian fighters such as Mitichyan, Gamburyan and Karo Parisyan. Thus, he’s learned something new and was also impressed by the amount of students learning martial arts at GFC.
“I got thrown a couple of times, it doesn’t matter that I’m bigger,” he smiled. “We don’t have [all that many judo and boxing classes] in Holland. It’s something new.”
Mousasi is likely to face Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal in his next Strikeforce fight at a date to be determined.
Great Day in Los Angeles Today
I spent today at the Los Angeles Fit expo in the morning and then went to the Glendale Fighting Club to train with my friends Gokor Chivichyan, Manny Gamburyan, Roman Mitichyan, Karen Darabedyan, Sako Chivitchian, Edmond Tarverdyan and many more fighters. Tomorrow I will attend the Called Out MMA fights to cheer on Sevak Magakian, Ando Dermenjyan and Jared Papazian. At the gym, we even celebrated ANdo Dermenjyan’s birthday. Happy Birthday Ando!!!
My Official Tapout Shirt – Get One!!!
Friends of Gegard
Sponsors
