Only a couple days to go until UFC 129 and everything's on track for The Athlete.
It was nice to finally get here in Toronto for my fight Saturday night against Ryan Jensen at UFC 129. Unfortunately, actually worse weather here than when I left Red Deer, which is kind of ironic considering how much bad weather we were having.
Anyway, we're staying at a hotel down on the harbourfront of Toronto, kind of off the beaten track and we've been laying low. Because of the weather, we haven't been going out much, pretty much just relaxing. Of course, there is a little bit of last-minute training, which we've been doing at night.
On Wednesday, we out to train at 10 p.m. which is a little later time than when I'm going to fight on Saturday, it's just the way it worked out. I anticipate my fight will be around 7:30 p.m., which is about 5:30 p.m. Alberta time, and that's when I usually head down to the gym for my training anyway, so that should be pretty good.
I haven't been doing any heavy stuff, just shadowboxing and time in the sauna. I'm trying out a new product from a company called Sweet Sweat. It's supposed to increase your sweating in the sauna.
I didn't push it too hard in the sauna. I did about 40 minutes and when I got uncomfortable I jumped out. At the end of it I weight myself and I was about 189 pounds, which should be on point to get to 186 Friday afternoon. So when I wake up Friday, I'll check it again and will just have suffer until the weigh-ins at 4 p.m.
My whole camp was good. I had solid training, and I feel I'm finally getting a balance. I've had camps where I've done too much training before and I've some where I haven't done not enough. This time I think it was just right and I didn't overdo it.
My time in Vegas was great. I trained at Xtreme Couture. Randy was there of course, as well as Mike Pyle, Forrest Griffin, Martin Kampmann, Evan Dunham, among others. It was good to see how I matched up against the top guys in the UFC.
There's so much talk about the magnitude of this card, but for me it's about going and putting on a great fight and rebounding from the last fight and the ankle injury. And I feel pretty good about it.
There was a question asked today during my live Skype chat on sportsnet.ca that we missed but I thought I could answer it here. The guy asked if there were any psychological barriers coming out of the ankle injury that I needed to overcome and I'm worried about reinjuring it or hesitant to throw a kick like that again.
The answer is no. I've been wrestling and rolling plenty with no problem and I even slipped on the mat once and rolled the ankle and it was fine. It's good, it's solid, it's not causing me any problems and I never think about it.
It really never crosses my mind that I might reinjure it and there's no hesitation at all in using it. I've never feared getting hurt while fighting. Maybe that's because I never had been hurt before the Montreal fight, apart from a few stitches here and there.
| UFC 129 Sportsnet/sportsnet.ca schedule | |||
| What? | When? | Where? | |
| 'Super 7' special presentation | Friday, 3 p.m. ET | UFC live stream | |
| UFC 129 weigh-ins | Friday, 4 p.m. ET | Live stream/chat | |
| UFC 129 live results | Saturday, 6 p.m. ET | Fight card | |
| Prelims on Facebook | Saturday, 6-8 p.m. ET | ||
| UFC Connected pre-fight special | Saturday, 7-8 p.m. ET | Sportsnet | |
| Prelims on Sportsnet | Saturday, 8-9 p.m. ET | Sportsnet | |
| UFC 129 main card (PPV) | Saturday, 9 p.m. ET | Pay-per-view | |
| UFC Connected post-fight special | Saturday, 12-12:30 a.m. ET | Sportsnet | |
| Post-fight press conference | Saturday, 1:15 a.m. ET (approx.) | UFC live stream | |
As for my opponent, I think Jensen is a lot better than his record indicates. He has a 2-5 record in the UFC, but that's deceiving. He was beaten by some really good guys in those losses and he's put on good fights. He has solid skills and comes from a great training camp, and works with great partners, including Jason Brilz and Ellenberger.
He's definitely not a pushover. He comes out and goes hard and throws hard and I don't expect this fight to be any different. It's going to be a tough first round. I just have to weather the storm, stay out of trouble, not have it become a dogfight, he tends to fade and run out of gas a bit.
If I don't catch him in something early in the fight, I'll try to make it go longer where the opportunity to finish him will be much greater.
At the end of the day, my back's against the wall, I have to come out with a good win here and do that at any cost.
I would really love to lay my eyes on the Rogers Centre before fight night, but I don't know if we're going to be privy to look at what it looks like until then.
With so many Canadians on the card, I think I'm a little too biased to make picks. But I will say one thing about the main event (I kind of have to). I really don't see any way Jake Shields can beat GSP. He's great on the ground, but he's not nearly the wrestler that Josh Koscheck is and Koscheck didn't come close to taking Georges down in his last fight.
To think Jake is going to come in and take him down and jiu-jitsu him is unrealistic. I think GSP will go out there and use his skills to keep the fight off the ground and beat him in the standup. But Jake is not the kind of fighter who will give up (as we saw against Dan Henderson), so I think we're in store for another five-rounder. But I expect GSP will dominate him from bell to bell.
Enjoy the fights and make sure you cheer me and all the Canadians on!
