[RiverRat]

Saturday April 19, 2008 8:00 PM (EST)
Matt Serra vs. Georges St. Pierre
St. Pierre -450

Georges “Rush” St Pierre (15-2) will have a huge advantage in this fight as he will be fighting in his home province and he will not want to disappoint his fans so he will be so well prepared for this fight. He is not even the champion and he has home field advantage which will be a big advantage to St. Pierre. Shouldn’t Matt Serra be fighting in his home town if he is the champion?
Matt “The Terror” Serra (9-4) knocking out Georges St. Pierre was the best thing that ever happen; to St. Pierre that is. St Pierre took Serra for granted and he paid the price and got knocked out. St Pierre will be in his backyard and home country at the Bell Center in Montréal Canada. After being beaten by Serra at UFC 69: Shootout St. Pierre has re-dedicated his training and workouts to a new level. If his preparation against Matt Hughes for the Interim UFC Welterweight title at UFC 79: Nemesis St. Pierre did one of the most grueling workout schedules to be in prime shape to fight Hughes. He flew in Keith Jardine, Rashad Evans, Nate Marquart, Denis Kang, and trained with the Canadian wrestling team to develop his stamina, endurance and over all ochre strength. Let just say when he fights Serra next month he will be twice the fighter he was before. He will not overlook Serra because he is a huge underdog this time I am almost sure of.
No matter what Serra will be a huge underdog in this fight. Does he have a chance to win? I would honestly say Serra has about a 10% chance of winning. Serra has better fundamental jujitsu skills and he was the first American to be awarded a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under a Gracie. Matt got his BJJ black belt from under Renzo Gracie on May 23, 2000. Grappling wise Serra is no slouch with first place finsihes at the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Pan American games in 1999. Serra competed in the ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championship choking out Takanori Gomi, winning a decision over Jean-Jacques Machado, and placing 2nd in the 66-76KG division. Grappling wise Serra is the better fighter but this is the UFC and mixed martial arts fighting. Overall Serra falslls second St. Pierre in almost every other department.
Serra might have better grappling skills but he does not overwhelm St. Pierre with his jujitsu. Being a smaller body at only 5 foot 6 even though he has better grappling he has much shorter legs and getting a guard, body triangle or triangle choke on St. Pierre will be harder since he has the bigger body frame. Striking wise Serra KO’ing St Pierre was a fluke. In all of Serra’s 9 wins he has only one knock out and that was against St. Pierre. Will Matt be able to KO St. Pierre again? I really don’t think so. Serra really hasn’t fought as many top quality as St. Pierre has with fights with Karo Parysian at UFC 53: Heavy Hitters and BJ Penn at UFC 39: The Warriors Return they real two only top quality fighters and he lost both of those two fights.
Serra’s fight with Chris Lytle, Ivan Menjivar at UFC 48: Payback, Jeff Curran at UFC 46: Supernatural, and Yves Edwards at UFC 33: Victory in Vegas were all wins but all but Decision. St Pierre is a pressing fighter and I don’t think Serra can last a full five rounds against St Pierre.
St. Pierre has the overall better strength and striking ability and he has enough grappling skills not to be caught in anything Serra has for him. St. Pierre is just an all round better fighter and he has the drive, determination and anger to become champion again.
Bottom Line: St Pierre has been training with an unbelievable training regiment while Serra has not fought since he last beat St Pierre on April 7, 2007. Serra has not fought in over a year while Georges has been in two MMA fights. He fought Josh Koscheck to a great three round fight at UFC 74: Respect and a beating of Matt Hughes at UFC 79: Nemesis. Serra was also out with a herniated disc in his lower back. The injury became evident when Matt was demonstrating a move to his student and he fell to the floor in pain. If you ever had a herniated disc it is real painful and takes a long to get back into shape. I really don’t think Serra will be in 100% and in full fight shape while St. Pierre will be itching to go. St. Pierre's stand up has vastly improved as trains in boxing with Howard Grant and Otis Grant at the Grant Brothers Gym in Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Quebec. With regular sparring sessions with world champ Joachim Alcine and others.
St. Pierre is going to dominate the stand up against Serra with his inside and outside leg kicks and overall power and strength in the stand up. As a UFC bettor I would stay away from this fight as the odds are too great in favor of St. Pierre and laying any money on Serra for an upset is just throwing your money away. But if you have 450 dollars to lay to win just 100 it is well worth it. UFC betting wise I would lay my money on other fights.

Home Crowd + determination+ skill + strength = A St. Pierre victory

St. Pierre becomes the undisputed UFC welterweight champion with a first round in front of his home crowd

[Smoke]

GSP should embarrass Sierra, worst title fight I can remember