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TagsBY JERRY MILANI
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
It has been a quiet few months for UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre as he continues rehabbing his injured knee and looks toward a summer where he can start training with an anticipated title defense somewhere later in 2012.
But the Montreal native and disciple of New Jersey resident and world champion Renzo Gracie continues to be a loud and effective voice for the positive side of professional MMA, especially as the sport's biggest stage, the UFC comes back to New Jersey this weekend at the IZOD Center, with another Jersey native, Jim Miller taking on Nate Diaz in the headline bout.
The full house and pre-media tour will serve as another shot across the bow to show the power of the sport not just in New Jersey, where the UFC and other smaller promotions continue to do a strong business, but also across the Hudson in New York, where the sport is still engaged in a long running battle to make it legal to compete in large arenas like Madison Square Garden and the soon to open Barclays Center in Brooklyn. "
“We have done everything we have been asked to date and it would be great to compete in New York at a place like Madison square Garden,” St-Pierre said last week while in New York promoting his latest business partnership with MISSION Athletecare's EnduraCool product.
“New York, it is like a second home for me, and the events the UFC have staged in New Jersey have gone off so well that it makes no sense not to have the sport in New York now. Hopefully another strong show just across the way this week will again show that all is being done is right, and we will be in New York soon.”
St-Pierre remains one of the most popular and diverse athletes the UFC has, despite being out of The Octagon now for some time. During his availability on Friday he talked about his passion for rap music and paleontology as well as his interest in following but not competing in the Olympic Games for his native Canada.
His business interests also include the MISSION partnership in a new fabric which, when wet, cools the body almost immediately and helps with recovery. Although not legal in the cage yet, he hopes his endorsement and support in marketing and developing the product (along with other star athletes like Serena Willams and Dwight Howard) will lead to mainstream acceptance.
“It is such a worry about overheating when you are competing,” he added, “and this technology helps battle that. It works so much better than ice when you are training in any sport, I think it can be a big asset to improve the competitive nature of the UFC or any place where you have a chance of overheating.”
In the meantime St-Pierre will take a cool and steady approach to his physical rehab, and will keep an eye out both for opponents and the heated battle still brewing to legalize MMA in New York, with the next round coming this next weekend at the Meadowlands.
His multi-talented, multi-lingual background remains one of the key selling points that the UFC has in their battle, along with the thousands of fans and potential millions of dollars that can be brought to the table if politicians and lobbyists push the battle along.
