In the first episode of UFC Primetime: St. Pierre vs. Hardy, UFC welterweight champion Georges “Rush St. Pierre says, “I’m a martial artist, he’s not. He probably doesn’t understand the meaning of this, but after the fight I guarantee he will,” in regard to his opponent, Dan “The Outlaw” Hardy (23-6-1).

St. Pierre

This statement may be a stretch, but at UFC 111 St. Pierre will no doubt attempt to prove that his game is on another level, like he has against so many opponents in the past.

Two-time UFC welterweight champion and former TKO Canadian welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre will make his fourth title defense, since winning the undisputed championship in 2008, this Saturday in the main event of UFC 111 at the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J.

Currently training out of Jackson’s Mixed Martial Arts and Zahabi MMA, St. Pierre has trained with various gyms, coaches and fighters throughout his MMA career. St. Pierre’s head trainer is Firas Zahabi and his muay thai coach is Phil Nurse.

Considered by many as one of the most well rounded fighters in MMA today, St. Pierre holds a third-degree black belt in Kyokushin-kaikan karate and a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. St. Pierre is known for his wrestling skills and strong takedown defense.

Fighting out of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, St. Pierre holds a professional MMA record of 19-2. St. Pierre has avenged both of his losses, to Matt Hughes and Matt Serra, and looks to continue his six-fight win streak. He has defeated one current and three former UFC champions in his career.

In the main event of UFC 94, St. Pierre defended his welterweight championship against lightweight champion B.J. Penn in a rematch of their UFC 58 meeting, in which St. Pierre was the victor via split decision. The fighters traded exchanges from the feet and the clinch for the first round, with Penn successfully fending off takedown attempts.

St. Pierre vs. Alves

In the second round St. Pierre was finally able to take Penn down and execute his game plan. St. Pierre took Penn down and passed his guard with ease for the majority of the remainder of the fight, landing vicious ground-and-pound. St. Pierre outlanded Penn 234-67 in total strikes, according to compustrke.com. The fight was stopped by Penn’s corner at the end of the fourth round and St. Pierre earned the victory via TKO.

In his last fight, in the co-main event of UFC 100, St. Pierre defended his welterweight championship against Brazilian muay thai expert Thiago Alves. St. Pierre both exchanged punches with and took down Alves with ease in the five round competition.

St. Pierre outlanded Alves 135-83 in total strikes and earned 11 takedowns. He attempted submissions and even dropped Alves in the third round, but was unable to finish him. St. Pierre dominated the fight, scoring a unanimous decision victory: 50-45, 50-44, 50-45.

In his last 13 fights St. Pierre has just one loss, which came to Matt Serra at UFC 69. His opponent at UFC 111 will present the same threat that helped Serra overcome the odds three years ago: knockout power.

Fighting out of Nottingham, England, Hardy holds a black belt in tae kwon do and a brown belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Hardy is a powerful standup fighter with a perfect 4-0 record in UFC competition. Of his 23 wins, 11 have come by way of knockout or TKO.

St. Pierre learned from his loss to Serra and improved his game. In their second meeting he was more reluctant to stand with Serra and rather took him to the ground from the start of the match and landed devastating ground-and-pound. Expect St. Pierre’s game plan to be much similar when he faces Hardy.

Many people are ruling Hardy out of the fight, and it’s hard not to question his chances considering St. Pierre’s impressive track record. However, Hardy embraces his underdog role and will at the least have a puncher’s chance at UFC 111.

Live pay-per-view coverage of UFC 111 will begin at 10 p.m. EST.

Watch UFC Primetime: St. Pierre vs. Hardy on Spike.com

One day before the New Orleans Saints wrote a new page in their franchise’s history, legendary fighter Mark Coleman, 45, indicated he would “probably” hang up the gloves after submitting to a rear-naked chokehold (1:09) from none other than Randy Couture, 46, in the second round of the Main Card Light Heavyweight bout at UFC 109.

The two were originally supposed to face off during the adolescent years of Ultimate Fighting Championship in 1998 at UFC 17, but were unable to because of a Couture injury.

After a ten-year hiatus from the Octagon, Coleman has lost two of three bouts. The latest bout featured an aggressive Couture, who was able to toss Coleman around the cage with little opposition in the first round. In the second, Couture continued the beating, eventually leading to the rear-naked choke that decided Coleman’s fate. The fight lasted just six minutes. Couture is now 18-10-0.

Also in the Main Card were two Middleweight fights and two Welterweight fights – three of which won bonuses. Fighters winning bonuses were granted $60,000.

In the Middleweight action, Brazilian Demian Maia faced off against the United States’ own, Dan Miller. After a devastating 21-second knockout was dished out by Nate Marquardt in August, Maia looked to rebound hard against Miller.

In the first round, Maia strategically used the stand-up game and his hands to send a message. Miller dropped his guard and ended up on his back, which gave Maia the upper hand early.

Throughout the rest of the match, it was a battle of martial arts tactics, and punches and kicks were landed on both sides. In the final frame, Maia tried for submissions against the cage on Miller, but was slightly unsuccessful. The final decision came unanimously in favor of Maia: 30-27, 29-28, 29-28.

Chael Sonnen handling Nate Marquardt; Image courtesy of mmaweekly.com

In what was named the “Fight of the Night,” Nate Marquardt took on the outspoken Chael Sonnen. Sonnen, who had words for Marquardt before the middleweight title eliminator, used his natural wrestling maneuvers to control the upper-hand on Marquardt for the entire match.

Despite Marquardt’s efforts, which resulted in a deep forehead cut for Sonnen, and a late pummeling in the closing seconds, Sonnen was still able to get the unanimous victory: 30-27, 30-27, 30-27. Sonnen now looks towards the winner of the Silva-Vitor at April’s UFC 112, hoping that Silva wins for the sake of battling “the lower road.”

In a more fast-paced bout, and what would be named “Submission of the Night,” welterweights Paulo Thiago (Brazil) and Mike Swick squared off in the Octagon. Thiago, now 13-1, was able to put away Swick very easily at 1:54 in Round 2 with a quick right-hand counter, which resulted in a lights-out D’Arce choke.

Check out the Countdown to UFC 109 Preview video below of the Thiago-Swick fight.

Finally, the Knockout of the Night was awarded to welterweight Matt Serra. Serra battled Frank Trigg in what would result in a quick and easy knockout at 2:23 in first round. After a nasty right-handed blow that would knock Trigg to the ground, Serra mounted his opponent and finished him off with punches, forcing the fight to be called due to a knockout.

Overall, Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay Events Center drew a crowd of 10,687, with a gate of $2.27 million.

Mark “The Hammer” Coleman’s Team Hammer House has fallen on hard times as of late.  However, Coleman hopes to turn the trend around as he meets another MMA great and fellow UFC Hall of Famer Randy “The Natural” Couture this weekend at UFC 109 Relentless.

Team Hammer House is a MMA team operating out of Columbus, Ohio, focused on amateur wrestling, and made up of mostly former NCAA wrestlers.  The team has cross training deals with notable fighters and camps such as Matt Serra, Pat Miletich, and Xtreme Couture MMA.

The main strengths of Team Hammer House are its wrestling and ground-and-pound.  Coleman is credited with being one of the first American MMA fighters to successfully use the strategy of ground-and-pound, which has earned him the nickname of the “Godfather of Ground-and-Pound.”

Coleman, the founder of Team Hammer House, holds numerous accomplishments in the world of professional MMA.  He is a UFC Hall of Famer, the first ever UFC heavyweight champion, and the winner of the UFC 10 tournament, UFC 11 tournament, and 2000 Pride openweight GP tournament.  Coleman, like many of his teammates at Hammer House, is a former NCAA collegiate wrestler.

Team Hammer House holds a roster with several prominent fighters, including four UFC veterans: two of whom are former UFC champions. The team’s notable fighters include: Mark Coleman, Kevin Randleman, Wes Sims and Branden Lee Hinkle.  Phil Baroni, a UFC, Pride and Strikeforce veteran, is a former member of Team Hammer House.

Former UFC heavyweight champion Kevin Randleman is a senior member of  Team Hammer House. Randleman, a former collegiate wrestler and two time Division I NCAA champion, was defeated by Mike Whitehead via unanimous decision in June of 2009 during his Strikeforce debut at Strikeforce: Lawler vs. Shields.  The fight marked his first fight in over a year due to a shoulder injury, as well as his first fight in America in nearly seven years.  In his most recent fight Randleman was defeated by Stanislav Nedkov via split decision at World Victory Road Presents: Sengoku 11.

Wes Sims, three-fight UFC veteran  and The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights cast member, recently fought Bobby Lashley on the main card of Strikeforce: Miami. Sims was stopped in the first round via technical knock out (2:06).

Branden Lee Hinkle, three-fight UFC veteran and NCAA Division II national wrestling champion, was stopped by Chris Tuchscherer in round 4 (4:43) of his most recent fight at SNMMA: Beatdown at Four Bears. Hinkle has lost four of his last five fights after going undefeated in his previous nine matches.

Coleman scored a unanimous decision victory over Stephan Bonner in his last fight at UFC 100 after falling to Mauricio “Shogun” Rua via technical knock out in the third round (4:36) at UFC93.  He is currently training with Team Hammer House in preparation for his match with Randy Couture this Saturday Feb. 6 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, NV.

Live pay-per-view coverage of UFC 109 will begin at 10 p.m. EST.

Mixed martial artist Ken Shamrock has seen it all throughout his 16-year career and has had broken bones from head to toe. He’s suffered a broken neck, wrist, foot and hand, in addition to tearing his anterior cruciate ligament.

If you play a sport, expect to get injured at some point during your playing career. Certain sports are more likely to hurt you than others. The injury rate in football, for example, is 100 percent.

MMA is no exception to injury, and its athletes are prone to a few not too pleasant injuries.

Something noticeable about fighters’ appearances is their swollen ears. This is an external deformity known as “cauliflower ear” and is seen in many of today’s fighters.

Cauliflower ear, or auricular hematomas, is caused by direct trauma—a blow to the ear is one way it is caused. When trauma occurs, the ear bruises and the torn vessels bleed. This leads to blood and fluid collection in the ear, which separates the cartilage and often causes new cartilage to form. This new cartilage does not usually grow symmetrically, which is why fighters’ ears look swollen and deformed.

Athletes prone to cauliflower ear include wrestlers, mixed martial artists, grapplers and rugby players, and it is sometimes thought of as a badge of honor by athletes.

Despite this, cauliflower ear is not something to take lightly because it brings major health effects and risks, as well as pain. The ear could possibly become infected, so antibiotics may be needed. If it remains untreated, the ear will harden and the ear drum often ruptures, making stitches necessary. Hearing loss often occurs with cauliflower ear.

To drain the fluid, a compress is needed to help strengthen cartilage and to avoid future fluid buildup. To prevent cauliflower ear, wearing some type of headgear is highly recommended.

Fighters often choose to still compete when suffering from cauliflower ear. However, other serious injuries may occur in a match, leaving fighters unable to compete in future events for some time.

According to an injury report from John Hopkins University School of Medicine Department for MMA (2002-2007), it was reported that in over 600 professional MMA matches, there was a reported general injury rate of 23.6 percent (300 out of 1,270 fighters).

The most common injury reported was lacerations. Other injuries included hand, nose and eye injuries, as well as various upper extremity injuries. This confirmed a previous study done by the same university from 2001-2004, which also reported that up to four injuries may have been recorded for each fighter during a match.

Hand injuries have been common in recent events. In a June 2009 fight against Mike Brown, Urijah Faber broke his right hand during the match and fought through the pain to lose by decision. His left hand also was injured as well.

Also noted in the study is that concussions were documented in three percent of matches. Concussions are a brain injury that occurs occasionally in full-contact sparring sports due to a blow to the head. They often lead to long-term damage. Every year, there are around 300,000 sports-related concussions.

The study concluded that overall risk for sports-related injury in MMA is fairly low. This is often attributed to the strict rules that the sport has in place to prevent injury.  In addition, depending on the severity and type of injury received, a medical suspension may prohibit a fighter from competing for a set amount of time.  This allows a fighter time to rest and heal.

Despite precautions, mixed martial artist Zach Kirk broke his neck and was paralyzed in May 2009 in an event in Iowa. Doctors are unsure if Kirk will regain his ability to walk.

Other injuries that mixed martial artists are prone to are broken bones, knee ligament tears and ankle or shoulder sprains. These injuries usually do not occur in training situations.

Well-known fighters to receive other various injuries include B.J. Penn who broke a rib during a match against Matt Hughes, and Matt Serra who suffered from a herniated disc.