Merci, Georges, for Clearing Everything Up

Ariel Harwani had an interview with Georges St. Pierre, and the video of it is popping up all over the Internet.

Ariel covers the ESPY awards, the upcoming fight with Jon Fitch, fighting strategy, BJ Penn calling Georges out, and rumors of a secret romance with Mandy Moore.

Harwani seemed irritated at finding "that after all MMA fans were encouraged to cast votes for him", Georges does not plan to be present at the event.

While Georges made a point of saying he was surprised,flattered and felt honored to be nominated for the Fighter of the Year Award, he would not be present to accept it and would do so in a taped statement if he should win. 

Mentioning that the best part of the nomination for him was that MMA is now being considered as a legitimate sport, as evidenced by the nomination.  He explained that the training time up until the August 9th fight with Jon Fitch was just too valuable for him to leave it to attend the event.

Harwani questioned why Georges who has had tough fights before with high level opponents, such as Matt Hughes, would feel that Jon Fitch should rate such intensive preparation.

In explanation Georges pointed out how multi-skilled and well rounded Fitch is and that he excels at several aspects of MMA and is good standing and striking or on the ground.  Indeed Georges pointed out how Fitch had just earned his black belt in jiu-jitsu.

As far as what special preparations Georges is taking, like a card shark, he refused to give his questioner a peek at his hand.

He did say that the fighters he trains with are each specialists in their fields, and he fights them all, one at a time, "I prepare to fight an Army and not just one man."

"As a martial arts fighter I am going to do my job, which is to go into the ring and destroy Jon Fitch."  And although he emphasized that he respects Fitch, he will not treat him like a friend inside the octagon--this fight is for real and GSP is deadly serious.

When the subject of BJ Penn wanting a fight with Georges "more than anything else in the world," Georges replied that many fighters were gunning for him now that he holds the belt and he will fight any of them. "I am not yellow.  I am not afraid to fight BJ Penn or anyone else; I am not a chicken."

After the fight with Fitch he will see who is next in line to fight him, but as for now, he will not speculate about having a New Year's Eve fight with BJ, although this is what BJ wants.

"As a red blooded American male," Ariel said he just had to ask about rumors that Georges is secretly dating Mandy Moore.

Shrugging his shoulders, then looking completely serious Georges threw up his hands saying, "Yes, we are married and she is at home waiting for our kids."  Then broke into a wide grin laughing.

"No there is no romance." 

He vaguely remembers meeting a woman Dana brought into his dressing room before the fight with Koscheck, he thinks, but was in his pre-fight "zone" and didn't register who she was. 

"I know she is a great actress, she comes to all the fights, and has a boyfriend. But there is nothing between her and Georges,  "That is a rumor and rumors sell magazines."

Naturally I replayed that part of the video more than once, and I was so excited to hear this that I hope my paraphrasing of his words is close to what he actually said.

When all red blooded males, my 15 and 1/2 year old grandson and his father among them, would drop their training for a title defence fight, I would hate to think that Georges was so ordinary he would run with the pack.

Thank heaven my faith in Georges' uniqueness and his complete dedication to MMA  has been rewarded.

Look out guys, Georges really is in the MMA to win, not score chicks. (Sorry Cody.)