George St Pierre, David "The Crow" Loiseau and Stephane Patry

Here is a bit of UFC trivia. Which two MMA managers are the only managers to have two of his fighters fight in both the main events of a single UFC card? If you guessed Monte Cox as one of them you are right, he had both Dave Menne and Jens Pulver at UFC 35 but chances are you wouldn’t have guessed the second guy. If you guessed Stephane Patry you would be right as his two fighters, Georges St. Pierre and Patrick Cote will be making their marks in a big way on the UFC 50 card that is to take place on October 22 in Atlantic City. It seems much has fallen into place for his fighters and he had much to say about his fighters as well as their tough opponents and much, much more. Did Mr. Patry really say that Georges St. Pierre is going to make Matt Hughes look bad? Read on and find out.

MMARR: Matt Hughes will be fighting Georges St. Pierre for the welterweight title, obviously that is a big fight for your fighter, what are your thoughts on that fight?

Stephane Patry: I am very happy that we are going to have a chance to fight Matt. I think Matt is probably the greatest champion ever in Mixed Martial Arts. He was for a long period of time the best pound for pound athlete in the world and even today a lot of people think he still is. He is a true champion, he is a gentleman, and he is exactly what a champion should be in Mixed Martial Arts he is a true representative of the sport, and a respectful guy. Georges is an up and comer, he has proven that he deserves to be there in the top five even though he is still very young, it is a big, big test for Georges, like I said very often in MMA styles make fights and I think this is a very good fight for Georges. I think Matt’s only weaknesses happen to be Georges strengths, for that reason it was logic for us to take that fight. I don’t think it is too early in Georges career to take that fight, when you are at the UFC level all the fights are tough and all the opponents are Matt Hughes. Frank Trigg is very good, and Renato Verissimo almost beat Matt in their last fight. So you know it was a question of do you want to fight Matt Hughes, Matt Hughes or Matt Hughes and we picked Matt Hughes.

MMARR: A lot of people jumped off the Matt Hughes bandwagon after his loss to BJ Penn. What are your thoughts on Matt Hughes’s fight with BJ Penn.

SP: I think BJ Penn did a great job, you have to understand this is Mixed Martial Arts and anything can happen. I mean, I think if Matt and BJ fight Ten times, I think Matt Hughes is going to win at least 6 out of 10. What happened is BJ Penn punched Matt and Matt was out, if you ask Matt he doesn’t even remember being choked out, he realized he got choked out watching the replay on the giant screen. Things like that happen in Mixed Martial Arts, I don’t want to take anything away from BJ he is an excellent fighter, he is a very, very good fighter, he also beat Duane Ludwig in Japan, in that fight he rocked Matt with a good punch and all the fans out there are like “Oh BJ is so good he out wrestled Matt, he out grappled Matt” you but the punch did everything. It was the punch that made BJ look so, so good but you know he was the one who threw that punch and he deserved the win.

MMARR: Tell us about the comments you made about Georges St. Pierre to MMA Ring Report you mentioned that “St. Pierre is going to make Matt Hughes look bad”. Can you explain?

SP: That comment came from me because, while Georges knows he can beat Matt Hughes, he is very I wont say nervous because he is a very calm guy but he knows it is going to be a war, it is going to be a very tough fight, but at the same time Georges knows exactly what he has to do to win. Sometimes people walk into the ring know exactly what they need to do in the fight, to look good or not to get caught with something, but Georges knows exactly what he has to do to win the fight. He knows he can win the fight, and I think if you look at what Matt brings to the table with strengths and weaknesses and you look at what Georges brings to the table with his strengths and weaknesses it is very easy to realize that Georges strengths are Matt’s weaknesses for that reason I think if all the puzzles fall into place on October 22nd, Georges is going to make him look bad.

MMARR: You are friends with Monte Cox. You have a good business relationship as well as a somewhat personal relation ship with Mr. Cox, something that I have been privy to in the past. Is it difficult to send your fighters to fight his?

SP: Sometimes it is, with Georges and Matt it is not me and Monte fighting in the ring, we are going to be joking about it, it is funny because I talk with Monte at least twice or three times a week and we talk strategy. We always talk fights, but when our guys fight each other like when Jeremy was fighting (David) Loiseau, we can’t talk like that. I can’t talk about David or Georges (St Pierre’s) Training and he cant talk about Jeremy or Matt’s training that is some thing that we have to keep out of our discussion even though sometimes I see something in the ring and I want to talk to Monte about it. I can’t because he is fighting Matt. But how much improved the sport is here in Canada is shown because our top guys are fighting Monte’s top guys, so that means we are right up there in the top five. I am just proud to be competing with him.

MMARR: What are your thoughts on the Welterweight division in the UFC.

SP: The welterweight division in the UFC is very deep. It is a very good division and you have a lot of tough guys you Georges, Matt, (Hughes) and Trigg, after that you have Nick Diaz, Karo Parisyan, there are some tough guys in this division, if Georges wins the title there is going to be a lot of guys gunning for him. But you know what? He is ready for that. He is a complete athlete and he can fight a lethal striker and beat him, like he did with Pete Spratt, he can fight a dangerous wrestler and beat him with a different strategy and beat him like he did with Jay Heiron who is a very, very good wrestler. Then he could change his style and beat a master submission fighter like he did with Parisyan. That is the beauty about Georges he has something to bring to the table for every style that he is going to fight against. He is never going to be like, “if I am fighting a striker, I will strike with him”. That is not Georges, he is always going to do with you what you don’t expect. When he fought Pete Spratt, if Pete Spratt would have expected George to do something, then he would have done something different. That is the beauty about Goerges, strategy wise, I think he is probably one of the most intelligent fighters out there.

MMARR: What will you do with Georges if he wins his fight and is bound to his contract and cannot fight for the TKO organization again?

SP: Well you have to remember it is all about my fighter. I could have been selfish, it would have been easy to be selfish from day one and have guys like David Loiseau, Georges St Pierre and Mark Hominick and make them the best kept secrets in Canada and make them fight “Jabroni’s” forever. I don’t think that would have been fair for them, that is why I brought guys like Thomas Denny, guys like Pete Spratt, guys like Tony Fryklund, Jesse Jones and Joe Doerksen. TKO is obviously is my bread and butter, it is my organization, it is the main thing, but also Georges, David and Patrick whom I manage are more then just athletes to me, they are friends of mine, I am there to help them. I know there is a way to help TKO while helping these guys grow up in their career. Honestly, when I think about Georges, our main focus right now is do everything I can so he can become the UFC welterweight champion, that he as an athlete fulfill his dreams. The most important thing right now is not to think, well when is Georges going to fight in Montreal again, I am sure there is going to be a time when he comes back to fight in Montreal, the fans understand that Georges right now is on to bigger things but when the time is right he will be back.

MMARR: I want you to comment quickly on the opponent change for Patrick Cote from Eastman to Ortiz.

SP: We thought it was a great opportunity, that is why we went ahead and did it.

MMARR: You mentioned it was a great opportunity do you feel it was too much too soon for someone that has never been in the UFC to jump into the main event in his first bout?

SP: I don’t think so, nobody if fighting robots in there, it is human beings fighting each other there is no terminator in the sport.

MMARR: Do you think that the big lights or the big show or being in the main event will affect Patrick Cote mentally?

SP: I could have affected him if it was his first time at a UFC. He was at UFC 48 when Georges fought Heiron and he saw what it was. He was around Georges he saw the hype and everything so he is ready for that.

MMARR: Do you think that Tito Ortiz will choose to stand and trade with Patrick Cote?

SP: I don’t think Ortiz will choose to stand and trade because he knows that if he does he is going to get knocked out. If he does stand up we will see what happens.

MMARR: What is your prediction between Cote and Ortiz?

SP: Cote is going to beat him, I think Tito is going to have a hard time taking him down, eventually he might be able to take him down in the first round, Tito is going to win round one probably and in round two he is going to get knocked out.

MMARR: Do you feel confident?

SP: The Georges (St.Pierre) fight, I don’t even want to talk about it. They should have sent us the belt by Fedex but they want to do the fight anyways. -MMARR-

*This interview took place over two different interview sessions on two different days.*