UFC 129: Is Georges St-Pierre Looking Past Jake Shields?

UFC 129 comes to you next Saturday live from Toronto.

In the meantime, this week the second episode of UFC Primetime airs tomorrow following the second airing of the latest episode of The Ultimate Fighter—of course, the mayhem involved will be expertly translated and analyzed into basic human terms for the casuals by B/R's special guest Featured Columnist and Team Lesnar's own Chuck "Cold Steel" O'Neil.

Speaking of UFC Primetime, we already know that UFC welterweight champion and pound-for-pound king Georges "Rush" St-Pierre and Jake Shields are spending as little time away from their shelters as possible, and we learned last week that "Uncle" Chael Sonnen isn't the only wrestler Shields has been training with in preparation for this bout.

While the rest of The Skrap Pack celebrated Gilbert Melendez's thorough demolition of Tatsuya Kawajiri, Shields was training his ass off with Phil "Mr. Wonderful" Davis.

We also saw GSP in his own humble abode, once again doing what he is supposed to do by watching the tape of Shields' Nashville bout with Dan Henderson. We also heard St-Pierre state that he was not looking past Shields.

Does the verbal statement reflect a truthful mind state, though?

Is the champion disguising a lack of focus on Shields by speaking to the contrary and claiming that he's 100 percent focused on the former Strikeforce middleweight champion?

Well, that's open to debate.

On one hand, questions about whether St-Pierre's focus, or lack thereof, on the foe at hand are nothing new. He was asked before his rematch with Josh Koscheck whether Kos had gotten to him in the pre-fight hype and he said it did.

But GSP also said that Koscheck being in his head only meant that he was thinking about nothing else except fighting Koscheck.

Perhaps recognizing that Shields has certain advantages over him has caused GSP to think more about Shields and the things he can do to use Shields' strongest realms against him.

On the other hand, though, some may argue that for the first time in GSP's career, the strengths of his foe are in areas that GSP might not have a game plan for.

Perhaps for the first time ever, GSP is thinking about the grappling, thinking about the jiu-jitsu, thinking about the possibility of Shields having more solid stand-up than what he's shown.

Maybe GSP feels he can't answer the questions that Shields will present in Toronto.

Of course, that could be the case, but then again, there's one thing we have to remember. UFC 129 is in Toronto at the Rogers Centre, where 55,000-plus in the Great White North will be on their feet for St-Pierre when the main event goes down.

GSP has lost in New Jersey before and he's lost in Texas before. But at home?

At home, mental errors are 0-8 against Georges St-Pierre.

Ivan Menjivar, Matt Serra, Dave Strasser, Thomas "Wildman" Denny—they've all tried to shut GSP down in front of the ever-loyal Canadian contingent, and they've all fallen at the hands of the Fighting Pride of the Great White North.

Jake Shields should keep that in mind next weekend when he steps into hostile territory.

Maybe GSP is looking at Shields after all. Maybe it's Jake Shields who is looking past Georges St-Pierre.

Truthfully speaking, though, has it been Jake that's been looking past St-Pierre?

Shields will answer that question in almost one week in Toronto.