GSP unfazed by challenge from Brazilian Pitbull

VANCOUVER -- Montreal's Georges St Pierre has been so convincing in the winning and holding onto his UFC world welterweight crown over the past few years, destroying some of the biggest names in mixed martial arts, that his initials have become a brand.

IBM. AT&T. GSP.

Thiago (The Pitbull) Alves is a long way from that point, but he's convinced he has what's needed to switch places with the double black belt from the Great White North.

"I think if anybody can beat GSP, I'm the man, and I will knock him out," he told reporters in Las Vegas prior to Saturday night's fight.

"I just know... Since I was 15, I had a plan in my head that I would be a world champion by 25. And here I am, 25 years old."

"It's been a long road. It's been 10 years for me to get here and when I start to think about it, I'm ready for this, for any situation. I think I was born to do this. It's my time."

St Pierre isn't flustered by such talk.

"He worked his whole life to get a shot? I've been working my whole life to be there -- and stay there."

As accomplished a martial artist as St Pierre is, he's in a perilous position. Like the best gunfighter in the old west, he knows that everyone with an idea that they're faster is coming for him. But unlike the wild west gunslingers of yore, he doesn't just have to worry about those within riding distance -- he has to worry about fighters coming from all parts of the world for his belt.

Places like Brazil, for instance.

"It was really scary," Alves says of his arriving in the United States from his hometown of Fortaleza. "I got here -- I'm a mama's boy, I've never been more than two weeks away from my family -- I had no English, $70 in my pocket, didn't know anybody."

Alves had been training in Muay Thai (Thai Boxing) since the age of 14, and had won his first professional fight at the age of 17 when he took a 31-year-old opponent to a judge's decision. When he showed up in the U.S, he already had 21 professional fights under his belt.

His first U.S. fight was at the age of 20, against Marcus (The Irish Hand Grenade) Davis, a former pro boxer who is currently a contender for GSP's belt. Alves outpointed him, and has gone 9-2 in the UFC since.

GSP, at the same time, hasn't just been winning fights -- he's learned entirely new martial arts skillsets.

-- Canwest News Service

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 11, 2009 D2