Every time a non-American fighter is fighting an American in the United States, we hear the chants of “USA! USA!” At UFC 124 in Montréal, Canada, there are seven – count ‘em, seven! – Canadians on the card. You can very well expect to hear the partisan crowd chanting “Canada! Canada!”

Canadians are a humble and soft-spoken bunch, as a matter of course. But put a group of us together in a room with a fellow Canuck to cheer on and we become suddenly patriotic. We showed this during the Olympics. And now we are ready to show the world once more, via UFC 124.

Canadians are going to support the UFC and mma regardless of who is on the card. Just look at UFC 115! While it’s not necessary for the UFC to add Canadian fighters to every event held in Canada, it is a nice gesture, and it recognizes the talent coming out of Canada.

At UFC 124, only one Canadian made the main card but, as Dana White will tell you, he is the most famous Canadian athlete ever. His name is Georges St-Pierre and he goes by the nickname “Rush”, but many know him simply by his monogram, GSP. He is arguably the pound-for-pound best mma fighter in the world. And he is headlining this event, defending his Welterweight Championship for the fifth time, this time against Josh Koscheck.

“Kos” has been talking a lot of trash about GSP in the lead up to this fight, including some humorous confrontations during the filming of the latest season of The Ultimate Fighter, in which they coached opposing teams. But St-Pierre just lets his opponents talk a big game and then makes them eat their words in the octagon. He doesn’t return the trash talk.

Although St-Pierre is a mild mannered, quiet, respectful person, the reason he doesn’t return the trash talk is most likely because his mother tongue is French. Getting into a war of words in a language one doesn’t fully comprehend is foolish. It would be like getting into the cage with a wrestler and not knowing how to defend against it – which is something Koscheck did three years ago when he lost a unanimous decision to St-Pierre in a bout to determine who would fight for the Interim Welterweight Championship.

There is no question Kos learned his lesson then and he will be ready for GSP’s ground game, to the extent that most are expecting a standup battle. If I hadn’t seen the determination and dedication in St-Pierre’s eyes, I might actually believe Koscheck could beat him. But St-Pierre is a student of mma, always learning. He is very technical and that means he has studied every move Koscheck could possibly make and he has the tools to defend or attack. Georges himself compared it to golf. In golf, you do everything you can do to be prepared and then you take your swing. Once the ball is in the air, there is nothing more you can do. St-Pierre has done all the training and now, there is nothing more he can do. The fight will proceed and he has either prepared properly … or he will lose.

The rest of the Canadians are on the undercard. Two of the fights will be shown live and free on UFC.com but the rest will be for the exclusive viewing pleasure of the paying audience – which itself will set a record for the highest attendance (expected to be broken again in April with an event held at the football stadium in Toronto).

Joe Doerksen

John Makdessi will make his UFC debut against Pat Audinwood and Jesse Bongfeldt will make his UFC debut filling in for fellow Canadian Jason MacDonald, who suffered an injury during training. He will face Rafael Natal.

Also stepping up as an injury replacement is UFC first-timer Sean Pierson, who destroyed Ricky Goodall in the first round at a W-1 event in October. TJ Grant is 3-2 in the UFC and looking to improve that record on home soil against Brazilian Ricardo Almeida.

Joe Doerksen and Mark Bocek have their work cut out for them in their internet-streamed preliminary bouts, against Dan Miller and Dustin Hazelett, respectively.

Any one of these fights has the potential to make the winner a household name. For Canadians, we hope to be talking about all of our fellow countrymen in a favourable light for years to come.

Main Card

Pay-Per-View

• Georges St-Pierre (c) vs Josh Koscheck for the Welterweight Championship
• Stefan Struve vs Sean McCorkle
• Jim Miller vs Charles Oliveira
• Joe Stevenson vs Mac Danzig
• Thiago Alves vs John Howard

Preliminary Card

Live streaming on UFC.com

• Mark Bocek vs Dustin Hazelett
• Joe Doerksen vs Dan Miller

Non-televised

• Jesse Bongfeldt vs Rafael Natal
• Matt Riddle vs Sean Pierson
• TJ Grant vs Ricardo Almeida
• Pat Audinwood vs John Makdessi

You mean to tell me that there’s actually an UFC ppv event this Saturday.  Surely, I’m not the only one that has had this notion slip through there list of things to do this weekend!    After the last UFC ppv events (UFC 109:  Couture vs. Coleman) overall fight card, fans were left somewhat bored.  I must admit however, that Bruce Buffer (acclaimed ring announcer) did a marvelous and manic-like job of announcing the fighters and their credentials.  It was the best part of this entire fight matchup.  Nonetheless, many mma fans didn’t expect too much from that particular main event.

It’s good that the UFC has a quick turnaround event, which is happening this Saturday, February 20….@9pm(Chicago Time).  The UFC 110 is in Australia, which means that it will be Sunday @ 2pm down under.  The unusual start time was simply to amuse the American and Canadian audiences.

There is very little hype, seemingly, about UFC 110.  The overall matchups are good:

MAIN CARD

• Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Cain Velasquez
• Michael Bisping vs. Wanderlei Silva
• George Sotiropoulos vs. Joe Stevenson
• Ryan Bader vs. Keith Jardine
• Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic vs. Anthony Perosh

PRELIMINARY CARD

• Chris Haseman vs.  ??????????
• Stephan Bonnar vs. Krzysztof Soszynski
• Brian Foster vs. Chris Lytle
• C.B. Dollaway vs. Goran Reljic
• Igor Pokrajac vs. James Te Huna

Dana White, President of the UFC, made sure to include a few fighters of Australian descent.  This is a good and easy marketing move.  Besides, it only seems appropriate.  George Sotiropoulos, James Te Huna, Chris Haseman, and Anthony Perosh are all from Australia.  Sotiropoulos vs. Joe Stevenson looks to be a great matchup.  Since 2006, Sotiropoulos has only lost to the Japanese star Shinja Aoki.  And Stevenson is looking to get another title shot at BJ Penn. Stevenson has been quite impressive in his last 2 fights.

Heavyweight title contender Cain Velasquez (7-0) faces the living mma legend in  Antonio Rodrigo “Big” Noguiera (32-5).   The winner is almost a clear shot to fight Brock Lesnar (Champion) for the belt sometime this summer.

Both Cain Velasquez and Joe Stevenson are of the American-born Latino culture. Cain has a tatoo across his chess that reads “BROWN PRIDE.”  This tatoo has come under some small disagreements amongst viewers.  And with Joe “Daddy” S.  you may have to search his myspace page to verify that he’s indeed of the Hispanic background.  Stevenson is proud… Read more »