St. Pierre moves like a dancer, a muscular inverted torso screwed onto an impossibly thin waist. A fleur-de-lis is tattooed on the back of his calf.

If he is beauty, Vargotski is a little beast who looks like every jockey's nightmare. The diminutive Muy Thai-boxing coach with the close-cropped hair is a former world champion kickboxer whose flattened nose suggests his offence was better than his defence. He looks mean and means business.

Each blow is like the crack of a whip in the tight quarters of the training room, St. Pierre's body reacting instantly to his coach as they circle each other. Combined with Vargotski's guttural shouts, it makes for a savage sound.

The barrage ends suddenly and the other fighters in the room break the silence with applause.

"That's it Georges," yells one.

St. Pierre is ready.

The 24-year-old Canadian is a mixed martial artist poised for stardom. UFC president Dana White raves about St. Pierre, calling him "the most talented fighter on the planet right now."

A title shot awaits. But first the five-foot-10 fighter must get past Hawaiian B.J. (The Prodigy) Penn, a former UFC champion with an 11-2 record.

The St. Pierre-Penn bout is part of UFC 58 USA vs. Canada (available on pay per view) headlined by middleweight champion Rich Franklin taking on Montreal's David (The Crow) Loiseau, St. Pierre's friend and training partner.

Penn, 27, is making a return to the UFC after leaving over a contract dispute. He is a master of Brazilian jiu-jitsu who needed just four minutes, 39 seconds to beat American star Matt Hughes via a rear naked choke hold for the title at UFC 46 in January 2004.

Hughes, now champion, is the only blemish on St. Pierre's 11-1 record, forcing the Canadian to submit with one second left in the first round at UFC 50 in October 2004.

St. Pierre acknowledges he let fighting the champion get into his head against Hughes.

"I thought the guy was just going to crush me," he said.

Pre-fight interviews just added to the stress. Reporters talked about how tough Hughes was and St. Pierre bought it.

During the fight, St. Pierre was doing well but thought Hughes was only toying with him. One mistake and the champion had him in an armbar. Time to tap out or else seek a doctor to put his arm back together.

"He beat me fair and square," St. Pierre says wistfully. "I have no excuse.

"But after the fight, when I saw the replay, I realized I was doing pretty well. And when I saw the replay, I get pissed off because I realized I could beat that guy. . . . I realized I'm a world-class fighter and I can beat everybody on the planet."

You could say the same of Penn, although the 170-pounder hasn't fought for a while. St. Pierre, for one, isn't taking the ring rust theory seriously.

"I expect a three-round war, Nothing less."

Vegas oddsmakers essentially say the bout is a toss-up.

Knowing Penn is a jiu-jitsu marvel, St. Pierre has been driving six or seven hours to New York every three weeks to train at the Gracie Jiu-Jitsu academy.

"I think I have more tools than him," St. Pierre says of Penn. "Athletically I'm faster and stronger than him, And I have more stamina. ... he's going to crack sooner than later."

St. Pierre has won three straight since losing to Hughes, going through contenders Sean Sherk and Frank Trigg like tissue. The Canadian is now so popular Caesar's Palace has thrown afterparties in his honour.

St. Pierre leaves his fighting in UFC's eight-sided Octagon caged ring. If someone challenges him outside he says, "I'm going to smile and I'm going to tell him, 'Look man, you're the king. Me, I leave.' I don't need to prove myself in the street. I'm a professional, I fight for money. I fight because that's my job."

It wasn't always like that. He says he fought often in school to protect himself.

"Now I act like a gentleman most of the time. I am always smiling. Normally nobody wants a piece of me."

There is less to St. Pierre as Friday's weigh-in approaches. He has to lose 15 pounds in five days to make the 170-pound welterweight limit.

To do it, he rids his diet of all carbs and sodium - "because one gram of carbs and sodium in your body retains three grams of water with it." Without rice, pasta, potatoes or salt, the body gets rid of water faster. The day of the weigh-in, he finishes cutting the weight by sitting in a sauna.

Then it's time to load up on carbs. The 15 pounds are back when he steps in the ring.

St. Pierre is better known in Las Vegas than Montreal. Canadians haven't taken notice of mixed martial arts, St. Pierre says, because they still see it as a sport filled with thuggish brawlers rather than well-rounded pro athletes. Plus nobody covers the sports, which means sponsors aren't interested.

His sponsors are all American and he dislikes winter, but he has no plans to leave Canada. St. Pierre accepts the cold because he loves hockey. The lifelong Oilers fan hits the ice with friends after every bout - usually after a one-week hedonistic vacation in the islands.

Then it is back to training and the next challenge.

His nickname is Rush, because he finishes off his fights fast. Plus it was better than Georges of the Jungle, as suggested by his training partners.

Posted by admin at 02:33 PM | Comments (0)

March 02, 2006

Odds in Doral's favor for another duel

Phil Mickelson has a hard time forgetting the bitter end to his duel at Doral with Tiger Woods.He was just off the 18th green, facing a 30-foot birdie chip to force a playoff at worst, and possibly win the best showdown of the year. The chip came off perfectly, ran true toward the cup and then broke sharply across the hole and spun out of the right side. Woods made his 6-foot par putt to win.
Mickelson might be able to put that out of his mind if he wouldn't turn on the TV in his room at Doral.

"Unfortunately, they have the video running on one of the channels here at the hotel, so I get to see it every night," he said Wednesday. "Isn't that great?"

It was great theater, no doubt.

This generation of golf rarely produces such duels between the top players, with such a fine line between so much talent. The Ford Championship at Doral got one of the moments that are sheer magic, and it produced a buzz that even drowned out the parade of jetliners descending over the Blue Monster.

Woods reached the 12th green with a 3-wood that traveled 293 yards in the air to make eagle. Mickelson fired back with consecutive birdies to catch him. Each made 27 birdies in four days, and Woods got the last one, a 30-footer on the 17th that was the difference in his victory.

Rare as that was, odds are in Doral's favor of that happening again because of sheer numbers.

Nine of the top 10 players from the world ranking are gathered at the Blue Monster, a course that favors power hitters with lush fairways that don't have a lot of roll and rough that is thicker than last year, but still not terribly troublesome for players with a wedge in their hands.

Vijay Singh tied for third last year. Also in the field is Ernie Els, who joins Woods as the defending champion because the Big Easy won the last time he was at Doral in 2002. That was another showdown of sorts, although Els played in the group ahead of Woods. He saw an eight-shot lead dwindle to one before Els pulled away.

Anyone ready for an encore?

"I would love to get in that position again," Mickelson said. "I want to have a chance to win the tournament, obviously. It would be great if I had a chance to go head-to-head with Tiger. It would be great to have a chance to go head-to-head with anybody in the top 10."

Woods gets those opportunities more often than most.

There was that incredible matchup with Els at Kapalua in 2000, as good a show this side of the majors. He has gone up against Singh in the final round at the '03 American Express (which he won) and the '04 Deutsche Bank Championship outside Boston (which he lost). He was tied for the lead with Retief Goosen at the '02 Masters, where the Goose finished three shots behind and asked if he got green trousers for finishing second.

Woods said the view is different from inside the ropes. Mickelson was just another player he was trying to beat, even if the volume was cranked up and the cheers were evenly divided.

"You could care less," he said. "You're just trying to post a low number and try to beat your opponent. You're just in your own little world, and you're trying to handle your business. Afterwards? Yeah, you can reminisce over what happened, but not when you're in it."

Some of his most dramatic duels have come against unheralded players, whether it was Bob May at the PGA Championship in 2000 or Chris DiMarco last year at the Masters or Grant Waite at the 2000 Canadian Open.

Woods was quick to point out that the top five players often are atop the leaderboard at the majors, even if they aren't there at the same time, or in the final group on Sunday.

Recent history bears that out.

The Big Five has won 15 of the last 24 majors dating to 2000. And even in those majors where someone else wins, there have been only four times that one of the Big Five was not at least the runner-up.

"You've seen myself, Mickelson, Goose, Ernie or Vijay, generally one of us five in just about every major championship down the stretch," Woods said. "Whether or not we can separate outselves and go one-on-one, it's a totally different story."

Woods and Mickelson were five shots clear of anyone else last year, which made it a different story, indeed.

And while Woods says he was too wrapped up in winning to care about whom he was beating, the satisfaction clearly goes to a higher level.

What got Mickelson more fired up? Going against Woods at Doral last year, or beating Skip Kendall in a playoff at the Bob Hope Classic?

"I don't know how to answer that," Mickelson said. "What I try to do is hit the shots where I can make birdies. But certainly, it seems as though when I'm playing against Tiger, playing against Ernie or Vijay or Retief, I've got to shoot low scores and make more birdies than against some guys that have won."

Goosen has been in that position.

He beat Mark Brooks in the U.S. Open playoff at Southern Hills. And while they weren't in the final group, Goosen beat Mickelson to win the U.S. Open two years ago Shinnecock Hills.

"It doesn't make much difference who it is," Goosen said.

But then he thought back to Shinnecock Hills, where the New York gallery was so squarely behind Mickelson that "it felt like I was playing with him."

"You always get more pleasure if you beat great players," Goosen said.

Posted by admin at 02:29 PM | Comments (0)

March 01, 2006

NFL labor talks are 'deadlocked'

NEW YORK -- NFL labor talks broke off Tuesday three days before the start of free agency, leaving teams and players in a quandary about negotiating new contracts.

Gene Upshaw, executive director of the NFL Players Association, spent the last three days meeting in New York and Washington with commissioner Paul Tagliabue.

"We're deadlocked. There's nowhere to go," Upshaw said. "There's no reason to continue meeting."

The NFL acknowledged the talks had broken off and said no further discussions were scheduled. The league said it would not extend Friday's deadline for the start of free agency.

Although the contract does not expire until after the 2007 season, this is a critical period in the negotiations to extend the 12-year-old agreement. Talks have been going on for more than a year.

Free agency is scheduled to start Friday. If the deal is not extended, this would be the last year with a salary cap, so agents and team officials want to know how to structure contracts.

For example, if there is no extension, the salary cap is expected to be about $95 million this season and annual raises after 2006 in a long-term deal would be limited to 30 percent. If the deal is extended the cap could be $10 million or more higher.

The sides have agreed on a number of issues. The biggest one is changing the formula for the amount of money to go to the players from "designated gross revenues" -- primarily television and ticket sales -- to "total gross revenues," which include almost every bit a money a a team generates.

They differ, however, on the percentage of revenues to be allocated to the players -- the union is asking for 60 percent and the league's current offer is 56.2 percent.

But there are also disputes among groups of owners on that issue, too. Tagliabue has called a league meeting in New York for Thursday.

Teams with lower revenues -- mostly small-market clubs -- say that if the contributions to the players' fund are equally apportioned among 32 franchises, they will have to pay a substantially larger proportion of their nontelevision and ticket money because they have less. Owners of high-revenue teams, like Dallas' Jerry Jones, claim spreading the load equally would force some teams to work harder to generate new sources of money.

Another high-revenue owner, New England's Robert Kraft, says the formula does not take stadium debt into account, as he has on Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello said "internal revenue-sharing issues" would not be discussed at the meeting.

Posted by admin at 02:24 PM | Comments (0)