GSP Doesn’t Want to Fight Without Freddie Roach Helping Him

I think that GSP is discovering that his enemy is his inner me right about now, as the talks of GSP’s retirement or even short departure seem to be blowing over as UFC 167 fades off into the sunset. In fact, it looks like GSP is even thinking about what coaches he should be looking into for future fights. As we’ve seen, Boxing roach Freddie Roach has been in the news a bit over the last few days after a scuffle in China leading up to this weekend’s Pacquiao vs. Rios event, but that also means that Freddie Roach has been talking to the press and it looks like GSP wants Freddie as a full time boxing coach. [link]

“He said, ‘I’m not going to fight again unless you are in my corner,'” Roach said. Asked to clarify if that meant on fight night, as well, Roach said, “Absolutely.” To this point, Roach has never been in a UFC fighter’s corner on the night of a fight.

Roach said his plan for St-Pierre was for St-Pierre to use his jab and inside hook to nullify Hendricks’ powerful left. A normal left hook goes over the top of the opponent’s jab, Roach said. The inside hook goes underneath it. It’s often hard to discern from a jab, but it has much more power. Roach said St-Pierre used the punch a lot to beat Josh Koscheck at UFC 124 in 2010.

“This guy [Hendricks], he doesn’t know anything, he just punches good with a big left hand,” Roach said. “Pretty much with him, if you can stay away from that and nullify that, it’s not that tough of a fight. Georges did it, and he had success with it when he did, but he didn’t do it enough in the fight.”