"He was the bigger guy, strong and powerful and that wears you out. To be honest, I think the Vaseline thing is BS. GSP could have been dipped in Crisco and it wouldn't have changed the fight. If you look, they towel him off in the 2nd round. A couple of brush strokes across the chest and on the back are not going to change the dynamics of the fight. If you lather him down, it may change the outcome, but if you watch the fight, you would see that it wouldn't have mattered," stated former UFC champion Guy Mezger as he shared his thoughts on the Vaseline controversy regarding Georges St. Pierre. Check out what else he had to say about Georges St. Pierre, BJ Penn, Fedor Emelianenko, Brock Lesnar, Wanderlei Silva, Chuck Liddell, Matt Lindland and much more.
PC: How is everything going my man?
GM: Man it's always good brother; hanging in there. One day is better than the next.
PC: I understand you have a nice looking facility in Dallas. Can you tell us about the Combat Sports Club?
GM: It's a 7,000 square foot facility. I'm sure it's the largest gym in the area. It's the nicest for sure. We have 4,000 feet of mat space and a fighting cage and we actually have real showers and locker rooms. It's nice, you know? It's not infested with all sorts of weird stuff and gross things that most gyms have. To be honest with you, it's a beautiful facility. I'm really proud of it. It's taken us a while to really find a great space for it, but we finally got it. I've been teaching in Dallas for 21 years. I've had my own gym for 21 years and this is by far the best that we've ever had.
PC: Was this something you had been working on for awhile or were you kind of forced into a bigger facility because of growth?
GM: When I first started, I was teaching in a basement of a personal fitness gym. You gotta understand, this was 21 years ago when personal fitness was still a really new thing, especially in Dallas. We had this space in there and it was in the middle of this really nice town called Highland Park and we were teaching in this basement and to be honest, we outgrew it. I opened up my first official gym. It was a real nice place, but then we outgrew that. So then I moved to a place in uptown Dallas. I was there for like 6 years, but then when we outgrew that I went into this partnership thing with the fitness gym because I liked the idea of having weights and cardio also. We put our gym inside of their gym. They had this 100,000 square foot facility and we put our martial arts gym in there and we were there for 7 years.
That eventually sold to 24 Hour Fitness. So after 24 Hour Fitness bought it, their business motto didn't really follow with our business motto so we decided to move with the same basic concept of having a gym inside of a gym. It was good. We were there like 4 years, but we really wanted to have our own place. When I'm done and retired from teaching, I want to have a place that outlives me; teaching our way and our brand of martial arts. That's kind of where I'm at right now. We're in the process of obtaining it outright. It's an awesome gym and we have the potential to grow from there too. It's been a long time coming, but it's really a dream come true.
PC: This is a full-fledged martial arts gym? They could get the whole 9 here, right?
GM: Oh yeah, man! We got boxing, kickboxing and mixed martial arts. We teach Jiu Jitsu and Judo too. We have our weights in there and we're in the process of buying more of the shopping center. We want to get the facility that is adjacent to us because we want to expand more. To be honest, our adult program is off the hook. We have over 300 to 350 students and we're running out of space. When I say that, that's active students. We don't have contracts. It's not like some gyms where people come sign up, but they don't want to come anymore and you keep charging them for the next 3 years. We don't do that. If you don't enjoy training, you can opt out of paying if you want. When I say we have 300+ members, that's people that are actually in the gym because they could cancel if they want to. We're pretty active and looking real busy so we might run out of space here. So we're looking to acquire this other building to move over some of the things we do.
PC: Do you think the success of your gym and outgrowing some of these buildings are just a testament to the growth of martial arts?
GM: Without a doubt. I think people are getting it. We're at this climate in America where people want to get real. We had this .com bust where people were buying and trading stocks with all of these fantasy companies. We had the real estate bust where people were told they can own a $300,000 house when they only make $20,000 a year. I think people want to get real and let's face it, I think mixed martial arts and other contact sports are as real as it gets. I think people are referring it to people like, 'Hey, what do you think about this?" As busy as I am or as busy as you are, if you weren't involved in martial arts or something, you're looking for the best in the fitness programs. What would be better than combat sports? What else works your cardiovascular, anaerobic and your strength at the same time while you're training? Very few does and this just so happens to be one of them and you're learning how to fight at the same time. You may never have a situation, you may want to compete or you may not, but it's still nice to have it.
PC: I always say fighters are the greatest conditioned athletes in the world.
GM: Especially mixed martial artist man and they're getting better and better. You look at guys like GSP and he's a machine. Sean Sherk, these guys are a hell of an athlete. Wouldn't it be great to be in that kind of shape? It's time for America to get off of the couch, put down the potato chips and step back from the cream dip and get in shape.
PC: I want to get your take on some recent fights. What was your take on the Fedor-Arlovski fight?
GM: Fedor-Arlovski was a quick fight, but it really came out as a good looking fight. I'll be honest, Fedor looked to be a little out of shape. I know that's hard to say because the guy never looks like he's in great shape. He's got that "I'm a volunteer fireman" kind of look. He just doesn't look like a stellar athlete. He was in trouble for a minute. I was there at the event because HDNet is partners with Affliction. I was thinking he may be in a little bit of trouble. I didn't think he was hurt, but Arlovski's plan was really sound and I thought if he got him down, Fedor was going to have trouble and I say that just as he (Arlovski) was getting hit with that right hand; that would have knocked an elephant out. I thought Arlovski had a good gameplan. I don't understand why you would try a jump knee against a guy like that because if you don't land it, you end up in his lap basically where they could catch you and that's not where I would want to be against Fedor. He started off pretty good, but it shows how strong and versatile Fedor is. He's not the greatest boxer, but he hits really hard. He's a really good fighter. He's one of those guys that his submissions that are not really slick, but he's making them work. Roy Jones he's not with his punches, but he's making them work. It's a testament to what a great fighter he is and not so much individual talent that he has. He puts together a winning package.
PC: What about Lesnar-Couture?
GM: That was a real interesting fight. Again, you're looking at a guy who was an incredible athlete; both of them for that matter. It surprised me how much Brock was able to counter punch really well. Most wrestlers flinch or cover at hits and he was very quick to counter and I think that surprised Randy a little bit. Randy got hit with some counter shots and I think he thought he would be able to outbox him. Lesnar was real good at countering though. Randy is the chessmaster though and he comes in with a good solid plan. You could see what he was attempting to do and I think it was working. I would give Lesnar the 1st round, but I think Randy was on his way to winning the 2nd. It looked like Lesnar was a little bit tired, but hey, the guy probably weighed about 280 pounds at fight time and you can't take shots from guys like that.
PC: The last fight I wanted to get your opinion on was GSP-Penn?
GM: I'll be honest, they are 2 of the top guys in the entire world at 2 different weight classes. I think BJ just gave up too much against GSP! It's like the saying goes, "A really good big guy will beat a really good small guy because he has the size."
PC: I agree. I had a buddy of mine tell me GSP made BJ look like a White Belt and I told him, "No, GSP made BJ look like lightweight!"
GM: Yeah, I think so too. He was the bigger guy, strong and powerful and that wears you out. To be honest, I think the Vaseline thing is BS. GSP could have been dipped in Crisco and it wouldn't have changed the fight. If you look, they towel him off in the 2nd round. A couple of brush strokes across the chest and on the back are not going to change the dynamics of the fight. If you lather him down, it may change the outcome, but if you watch the fight, you would see that it wouldn't have mattered.
PC: Does it concern you when you see legends like Wanderlei, Liddell and Lindland brutally knocked out? What would you like to see happen in their immediate future?
GM: What we're looking at here is all of these guys have been in wars and they're getting older. That's the reason I retired. I had a lot of fights, even before I stepped in the UFC, I had 60 something fights before I even stepped into my first UFC. To be honest with you, God gives you a certain amount of punches to the head and then after a while, you don't take them the same. When I fought Chuck, I hit him with some very hard shots and he kept coming and he was strong, but after awhile, you can't take those shots the same anymore. Chuck is 38 or 39 years old so he may consider it soon. The thing is it's hard for these guys to step away because for one, he's making a lot of money to walk away from, two being a superstar athlete like he is, it's hard to walk away from; it's an addictive drug. It's more addictive than any illegal drug; the fame and fortune that come. Hopefully these guys will sit back and see where they're at in life and be happy with that. All 3 of them have had incredible careers. If they were to never fight again, they would still go down as some of the best fighters to ever fight in the history of mixed martial arts. I think that they need to make a decision on their health and what's best for their family. That's what happened to me. When I was fighting, I had a stroke when I was preparing for Tito. They gave me a medical clearance to get back in there about 4 months later and I had to say to myself, "Is this really what I want to do?" Because I have children and I've had a great career. I figured it was probably best for me to step away. I had a stroke without having anything wrong. I got very lucky with that. I think that was God's little message to let me know I may need to consider doing something else. I hope these guys make the right decision. All of them are good guys and warriors, but I hope they make the right decision.
PC: Tito Trinidad said he came back because he could never capture that same feeling he had of walking to the ring. What was the toughest part of your retirement?
GM: I always tell people like this, I relate it to when you're out there fighting, you're like a superhero. You get to be larger than life and it's so much fun. I look at my career as a great time. I had a great time. Its cooler to be Batman than it is to be Bruce Wayne. You really are Bruce Wayne, but you're wearing a costume and you think you're Batman. A lot of the times, it's hard to distinguish between the two and you start to think you're Batman. Sometimes it more important for a fighter to be Batman or a superstar than to be the person they really are inside. It's cool to be Batman, but I had to be content and cool with being Bruce Wayne when the time came.
PC: You were one of the guys to put Pancrase on the map. Can you believe it's been 15 years?
GM: It's insane actually. To tell you the truth, I'm excited at the fact that they've done so well and it's always been a really strong show. Since Pride, they've kind of taken a backseat. In my day, we were the only real Chute organization out there. We enjoyed our heyday and I would definitely say we were rock stars there. Pancrase has always been an exciting show with solid athletes and I'm excited for them. I'm glad it's been 15 years and they're doing a big push here in the United States. It's something that guys should get involved with. I would love to see more of our American athletes get involved with Pancrase just for the fact that they have world-class fighters. There are just not enough shows. It's reasonable shows and then really big shows, but it's nothing in between to where in Japan, they have these kinds of deals. They have shows like Pancrase where you could fight some world-class guys and get experience before you go to the UFC or something like that.
PC: Could you tell us a little about the Pancrase VOD?
GM: My involvement is mostly as a fan and former "King of Pancrase." They will be showing a bunch of the old fighters. If you look at it, especially in the old days, a lot of the former UFC champions come from a Pancrase background. You look at Frank, Bas, me, Pete Williams and Ken, all of us had a Pancrase background. A lot of great athletes came from that era. I think people should enjoy watching what it was because that was the root of mixed martial arts. The UFC really wasn't mixed martial arts. It was no holds barred. Pancrase was mixed martial arts because they had rules and a certain conduct in which you carried yourself whereas anything went in the UFC. I think most people saw the value in having a code of conduct and rules mixed in with the popularity of the UFC and that's really mixed martial arts.
PC: Always a pleasure to speak to you. Next time I'm visiting my brother in Dallas, I will pass by your gym.
GM: Sounds good, but you gotta do more than pass by. You have to come in and get a workout in; come bust a sweat. I think I can spring a free pass every now and then.
PC: Sounds good!
GM: Okay buddy!
[ Follow Percy Crawford on Twitter @MrLouis1ana ]