Package of over 185 diet, weight loss, health and fitness ebooks including all natural cures and remedies for many common health problems! This information shows you how to lose weight, get fit, get healthy and be in the best shape of your life!
I asked the free-spirited lightweight why he believes so many fans empathize with him. The unbeaten fighter with the shaggy, heavy metal hairdo and skateboarder vibe alluded to something that a training partner said to him recently:
“Dennis Hallman brought up a good point the other day. He said, ‘Cody, the reason everyone likes you is because you’re the average Joe. The guy sitting at home on the couch thinks, ‘I could be like this guy! That guy looks like me! And then you take off your shirt and the guy on the couch goes, ‘He really does look like me!”
The perpetually happy 23-year-old says all of this with a chuckle, of course (laughing easily, for the uninitiated, is a McKenzie trademark). Part of his charm, it seems, centers around his habit of self-deprecation and a tendency to not take himself too seriously. Yet despite his rising popularity, McKenzie is careful to note that while his time on TUF 12 has endeared him to many, there is much room for improvement.
“Not everybody likes me,” he noted. “I get hate mail, too.”
It’s a bit odd, because in-person, McKenzie is an easy guy to get along with. His aura conveys that he’s not judging you, that he wants to be fast friends, that he has no ulterior motives for being nice to you in a world where it seems like most everybody else does. McKenzie’s mission is as simple as his uncombed locks: Pretty much all he wants to do these days is fight. As often as he can. While many UFC fighters are content with fighting three or four times a year, McKenzie claims straight-faced that he would love to fight every month. Which is partially why he jumped at the chance to battle lightweight pioneer Yves Edwards at the Fight for The Troops 2 event on Jan. 22 in Fort Hood, Texas.
“I’ve been wanting to fight someone with a name like Yves Edwards for a long time and this is finally my shot,” he said. “He’s really good and it’s going to be a great fight. I like the extra adrenaline rush and high that goes with fighting in the UFC. I get really amped up. I’m stoked to be fighting for the troops, especially against a legend. That’s going to send me through the roof. I’m hoping after I take Yves out that I can get on another card. I don’t believe in big, long training camps, like most people. I get in shape in a few weeks.”
That approach, unusual among UFC fighters, has been working. McKenzie brings a sterling 12-0 record into the contest with Edwards, an adopted Texan who has built a 39-16-1 record over the 13-year roller coaster that has been his career. The history of both men suggests that Edwards, an exceptional athlete whose lengthy experience in the UFC dates back to 2001, possesses far more weapons to win; Edwards has 14 wins by TKO and another 16 by submission. McKenzie has essentially (and unapologetically) been a one-trick pony – finishing 11 foes with a modified guillotine choke that is so potent and gnarly that countless submission grapplers across the world are trying to imitate the move and its unconventional mechanics. McKenzie has a name for his signature invention: “The McKenzietine.”
“A lot of times I don’t go into a fight thinking, ‘I’m going to do this move,’” he said. “Once I start thinking that I’m going to start getting my head caved in because if that’s all I’m looking for, it will be pretty easy to time me. I never go in looking for it. But it seems like in a fight people leave their neck open a lot. If it’s there I’m going to grab it.”
When it comes to failing to protect his neck, Aaron Wilkinson is guilty as charged. The Brit became the 11th victim of the McKenzietine during last month’s UFC scrap. Everybody in the arena that night knew that McKenzie, competing in his UFC debut, wanted to go neck hunting. Yet 2 minutes and 3 seconds into the bout, the skinny, flat-chested guillotine master had struck again -- swiftly. The tap out earned him his 12th straight victory, all in the first round. But with his secret now exposed to the world, can McKenzie continue his magic against a fighter who, once upon a time, was one of the world’s premier 155-pounders? After all, Edwards has never pretended to be a wrestler, and rarely shoots on opponents. In fact, McKenzie will be facing an opponent who hasn’t been submitted in nearly five years in a live fight.
“Is that right?” McKenzie said when apprised of Edwards’ stellar submission defense. “I didn’t know that until you told me … That’s OK, because I work everything. I’ve done boxing and Muay Thai. I’ve competed in a lot of submission wrestling tournaments and I’ve caught people in moves besides that move.”
While he lives and trains around Spokane, Wash., McKenzie also journeyed to Orlando, Florida, for this camp to train with TUF 12 winner Jonathan Brookins. But McKenzie’s favorite place in the world, the place where his character and values were formed, is Alaska, where he was raised in Cordova, a small fishing community.
“I lived there for 15 years,” McKenzie said. “My father worked as a commercial fisherman and I spent a lot of time with him out on the boat. I grew up on the best seafood in the world, the best salmon in the world, picking crab right off the pots, shrimp, halibut, rock fish. It makes a world of difference when you fillet it and cook it up right there. I learned to work hard and fast there.”
When it comes to parental influence, McKenzie indicated that, in his case at least, the fruit doesn’t fall very far from the tree.
“My family is a lot like me. I notice that I’m different from a lot of people, but in my circle they’re all a lot like me,” he said. “I guess my parents are pretty wild themselves. I grew up pretty relaxed. My parents were great parents, they gave me a lot of freedom -- I had a lot more freedom than a lot of my friends had. My friends were getting the birds and the bees talk; I missed that. I grew up on a boat, you know. Alaska can be peaceful, but there are some wild characters there that put me to shame. I’m not the craziest out of all of my friends. I have friends that make me look slow-paced and normal.”
Though he has played musical chairs with his fighter nickname – using four different ones – McKenzie announced that he will heretofore be known as “The AK Kid” in honor of his Alaskan roots (Sadly, “Wild Man” did not make the cut, though McKenzie has worn the moniker before).
As for being grouped in the same “wild man” category with Clay Guida, McKenzie didn’t really endorse or reject the comparison.
“I met Clay once. He wanted to go fishing,” McKenzie said. “I actually had like four fishing poles in my car. I was going to go but I had to train for a fight. Other than that, I don’t really know much about him; he has long hair and tattoos just like me but he definitely ain’t got my fighting style. We have two completely different styles.”
Fair enough. Guida is, after all, a very good wrestler. And explosive. And quick. And tireless. Cody is, well … How do you rate yourself as an athlete, Mr. McKenzie?
“That’s a tough question,” he answered. “I’m not very athletic … I’m not an athlete at all. I’m not a jock. I’m not like your normal fighter; I like to party a lot more than most fighters … I’m definitely not explosive. You won’t see me doing flying knees or nothing. I have a vertical of probably like … well, I don’t even know what a good vertical is, but mine is pretty low. But when it comes down to it I don’t believe a lot of that stuff has anything to do with fighting. What matters is just getting in there and fighting. The fans will see. A lot of people are counting me out against Yves, so I’m going to go out there and show a lot of people what’s up, show them why my record is what it is.
“I got into fighting because I love it. I won some amateur titles in fighting, but all that doesn’t matter; all that matters is that I will be the 155-pound champ of the UFC. I don’t care if they have a darker belt or more trophies and medals, I am going to be the one at the top beating everyone up.”
“He’s obviously the fastest boxer that I’ve seen in my life and he’s the best boxer that I’ve seen in my life as well that I’ve been able to interact with,” said St-Pierre. “He gave me some tips, and I learned a lot from (Pacquiao trainer) Freddie Roach and I can’t wait for my next fight. I think it’s gonna be great. I’m going to be able to use some of the things that I learned from them and put them into practice.”
It’s an odd statement, hearing one of mixed martial arts’ best, the UFC welterweight champion and the epitome of a complete fighter, speaking like a fan. And when you bring this up to St-Pierre, he explains what that means to him.
“Being a fan depends on how you look at it. For me, it’s to recognize the work of someone and appreciate the work, and try to learn from what he does best and try to incorporate that into your game. Of course Manny Pacquiao has a lot of stuff that I want to bring into my game, like Anderson Silva does, like BJ Penn does, like Matt Hughes does, Like Shogun (Rua), like (Lyoto) Machida, like Fedor Emelianenko. I’m a fan of all these guys.”
So when St-Pierre wakes up in the morning and looks into the mirror, it’s simply to wash his face and brush his teeth, not to worship at the altar of GSP. And that may just be the secret as to why no one has been able to touch the Montrealer in the nearly four years since his last defeat, against Matt Serra.
“I’m a student of the game and I try to learn and get better every time,” he said. “The best way to learn is to watch the best guys and see what they do best and learn from them.”
That’s not just a catchy line either; he means it, but what he forgets to add in is that he doesn’t just learn from the best, but that he can learn anything from anyone in the game, including the prospects he recently coached on season 12 of The Ultimate Fighter.
“I learned from a lot of these guys,” said St-Pierre. “As a matter of fact, Cody McKenzie, I learned his guillotine, and I gained just as much as I gave, and maybe even more. It was a good, positive experience.”
At least when he was interacting and training with his team. When he had to deal with opposing coach Josh Koscheck – who he will face in the main event of UFC 124 this Saturday night – things weren’t so pleasant, as he dealt with his rival’s barbs and practical jokes. St-Pierre never cracked though, never got into a war of words with Koscheck. Instead, he chose to take the high road.
“It’s my nature,” he said. “If I don’t want to break, you’re not going to make me break. Koscheck was trying to be arrogant with me, but it was not smart the way he was doing it. He didn’t get into my head; he just wasn’t fun to be around. I was disappointed in his personality, but that was a good thing because it just made me train harder.”
That’s a scary proposition considering that St-Pierre is already known as one of the game’s hardest workers. But he needs to do this. He needs to make the trips out west and to New York to train in order to keep his physical and mental game sharp, especially since he already owns a win over Koscheck via decision in 2007. It would be easy to get complacent, especially when you factor in his dominance over the last three years, but he won’t do that again. The last time he did it, he lost his title to Serra. Since then, he has kept his eyes on the elusive prize of bring the best. Not today, but of All-Time. So when you ask if anything from the 2007 bout with Koscheck is pertinent, the answer is what you expect it to be.
“I think it’s gonna be a different fight between two different fighters,” he said. “It’s hard to predict, but I’m well prepared wherever the fight goes, and I’m thinking about what I’m going to do to him and not what he’s going to do to me. I’m gonna dictate the pace of the fight and fight him wherever I want the fight.”
He emphasizes the last sentence, making clear his serious intentions and sending a message to Koscheck that if he thinks he’s fighting the same person he did back at UFC 74, he’s dead wrong.
“My motivation is the result at the end, and that’s to finish him,” said St-Pierre.
If he is able to knock Koscheck out or submit him, it will be GSP’s first finish since he halted BJ Penn in their 2009 super fight. After that bout, he went the five round distance twice, shutting out Thiago Alves and Dan Hardy, garnering criticism along the way for not taking his challengers out before the final bell. But when you consider that since the Koscheck fight he has not lost one of the 23 rounds that he has fought against world-class competition, it puts such criticism in perspective. And not just because he’s winning rounds, but that he’s staying focused and winning late rounds in fights he already has wrapped up on the scorecards. This ability to be dominant over the course of a 25 minute fight gives him an edge that Koscheck can’t possibly argue, since he’s never fought in a championship bout. And if it comes down to traveling into deep waters this weekend, St-Pierre is prepared.
“I’m ready for a war,” he said. “The day of the fight, I’m expecting five rounds of war at a very high pace, nothing less, and that’s what I’m training for. I can beat him in the first round too, but I want to fight the best Josh Koscheck and I want this fight to make me grow as a martial artist and make me better. I see my career as a marathon and not as a sprint, so in my next fights, I’ll be stronger and stronger.”
This is the real Georges St-Pierre – hard-working, never satisfied, always looking to learn. It’s not all glamour, photo shoots, and seemingly effortless victories over top-notch fighters that he makes look ordinary. But he’s had to deal with that end of things as well, being thrust into the spotlight as an ambassador of the sport as well as one of its champions. It’s a role he had to adjust to, yet one he has accepted with style and grace. No longer is he just the shy kid from Montreal…
He interrupts with a laugh.
“I’m always the shy kid from Montreal.”
And that’s made it more difficult, but he’s grown into a role that extends beyond the Octagon.
“It’s hard,” he admits. “The bigger it gets, the more work I need to do and there are some periods where I wish I could go back and be like a normal guy. There are some good things and some bad things about being a celebrity, but I can assure you that the principal reason why I’m doing this is not because I want to be a celebrity. I spent so many years without money and without fame and I kept doing it. Today, the money is there the fame is there, and I can build up my security for my family in the future with it, so it’s a good thing and I take it as a positive.”
It’s hard to imagine now, but Georges St-Pierre once was a garbage man and a bouncer, working long shifts just to make ends meet. He wasn’t walked through life like so many blue-chip athletes who crumble the second their personal assistant hasn’t set up their pedicure appointment. So when the Octagon door closes and he prepares to defend his title, he isn’t doing it for money, for fame, or even for a belt.
It’s for so much more than that.
“When I step into the Octagon I imagine the guy in front of me is trying to put me back into the situation that I was before,” he said, “and I need to take him out, to break him, and to not go back there.”
Free Prelims on UFC.com/Live
For the first time ever, two preliminary bouts will be aired live and free online at http://www.ufc.com/live. The Dustin Hazelett vs Mark Bocek and Dan Miller vs Joe Doerksen fights will be available to everyone worldwide at no charge starting at 9pm ET/ 6pm PT/ 2am GMT.
