Matt Serra says he has no problem taking on GSP on hostile ground in Montreal

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/02/2008 (6686 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TORONTO – Matt (The Terror) Serra says he would have it no other way. Alone and in hostile territory.

“I’m fine with it. It’s good,” the stocky mixed martial arts fighter from Long Island, N.Y., said Tuesday. “More pressure on this guy. “I don’t mind the boos, let it rain down on me.”

This guy is Montreal’s own Georges St. Pierre, who will be looking to reclaim his UFC welterweight title from Serra when the UFC makes its Canadian debut on April’ at the Bell Centre.

Serra was more than a 10-1 underdog when he stripped St. Pierre of the championship belt in the Canadian’s first title defence last April at UFC 69 in Houston. He confounded everyone by stunning St. Pierre to win in three minutes 25 seconds.

Serra (16-4) has not fought since, however. A stint as coach on Season 6 of “The Ultimate Fighter” reality TV show delayed matters, as did a back injury suffered training for a scheduled bout in December against rival coach Matt Hughes. St. Pierre, 26, stepped in for Serra and beat Hughes at UFC 79 for the interim 170-pound championship, setting the stage for the Canadian showdown in April.

St. Pierre hasn’t paid too much attention to the interim title, saying Serra has the real thing. He never put it on and says it’s “probably somewhere in my closet.” He gave his original championship belt to his mother as a thank you for all her love and support.

Serra, who met the Montreal media on Monday along with St. Pierre and UFC president Dana White to promote UFC 83, says he is now healthy and ready to stop talking and crank up his training.

“This is the last press tour I’m doing,” he said in an interview.

“I’m going to be fantastic for the fight. I mean I would have liked to have been more active in the last year, obviously, but these are the circumstances you have to deal with.”

St. Pierre (15-2) said all the right things the night he lost to Serra but their relationship was marred by a later interview in which St. Pierre said he had not trained properly because of a knee injury and that he only went on with the bout because he was fighting Serra and not Hughes.

Understandably, that did not go down well with Serra. Their relationship today is cordial but one based on the fact they have known since last April that their fates were intertwined – and that they were on a collision course.

“He’s a funny guy. Honestly I think he’s a good person,” said St. Pierre. “It’s just that I have to fight him. He can be nice to me or funny or whatever he wants, I don’t care. Because April’ I’m going to hit as hard as I can and he’s going to do the same thing.”

Serra, 33, says there is no need for trash-talking for Serra-St. Pierre 2.

“This fight is going to sell itself. If I got stopped in the first round and had to tap out, and stuff like that, to a guy that wasn’t supposed to beat me, I’d want to get that guy as soon as possible and make an example of him. So I’m sure Georges is going into this fight thinking he’s got to make an example of me. And I love it. I love being the underdog.”

Some questioned St. Pierre’s mental toughness after the loss. St. Pierre had a lot of personal issues going on around the fight, with injuries and serious illness in his family affecting his training. He acknowledges he needed a mentor, to keep him focused.

Since then, he has rejigged his entourage and management, and has looked rock-solid in defeating Josh Koscheck and Hughes. He has remade himself since the UFC 69 setback.

“It’s done, I can’t change anything from the past, I can just work on the future,” St. Pierre said. “That’s what I’m going to do April’.”

Serra says he does not plan to play games outside of the cage.

“I’m not going to go out of my way to try to get into his head,” he said. “Matt Hughes does that a lot and it’s obvious. It’s kind of sad.”

“He (St. Pierre) had some issues and he’s shown recently that he can overcome them,” he added. “I just know one thing about myself. I know mentally I’m going to be where I have to be. Fight night, Montreal, with the crowd booing me, there’s going to be no place on the earth I’d rather be.

“I’m coming into his backyard and I’m coming to fight. That alone is showing some balls. A lot of people wouldn’t have done it. … I don’t let nothing get to my head. They say Matt you’re fighting in Guam, you’re fighting in Canada, you’re fighting in Brazil, I don’t care, man. It’s the same cage to me.

“Not to mention, that’s a lot more pressure for this guy. He says he works really well under pressure, but you’ve seen him do really well and you’ve seen him maybe not do so well. I just know where my head’s going to be at.”

“I’m the champ. I’ve got the belt. I beat him and I beat him in good fashion,” he added. “If I beat him again the same way, awesome. If this is a war, I want this to go on the books as one of the best wars ever. That’s what you get remembered for anyway. I’m going to be ready for a battle. It’s all I’ve been thinking about.”