St. Pierre, Hughes brace for championship battle

Taking a fight on late notice was an easy decision for Georges St. Pierre, whose training camp already was in full swing.

But he wasn't training for an Ultimate Fighting Championship welterweight title bout. In fact, he wasn't training for a mixed martial arts fight at all.

St. Pierre was preparing for the Olympic wrestling trials in his native Canada when he got a call on Thanksgiving Day offering him a third fight with Matt Hughes.

"I had a choice to make, but my career is in the mixed martial arts and I am in it to win titles, so that was the decision I had to make," said St. Pierre, who will meet Hughes for the interim welterweight championship at UFC 79 on Saturday night at Mandalay Bay after Matt Serra withdrew from the bout because of a herniated disk in his back.

Hughes also had to agree to take the fight in the middle of training camp.

"I found out (about Serra's withdrawal) from the Internet," Hughes said. "Then, I saw I had a message from (UFC matchmaker) Joe Silva, and he gave me some names and said these guys said yes to the fight and these guys said no, and I chose Georges."

It will not be the first time the two have met in the octagon with some form of the welterweight title on the line.

Their first fight came in 2004 when Hughes won the vacant belt by submission with one second left in the first round.

St. Pierre then took the title from Hughes by second-round technical knockout in November 2006.

"Matt Hughes is my biggest rival," St. Pierre said. "As much as I respect him, he is definitely my rival."

In his first title defense, St. Pierre lost the belt to Serra in a major upset in April. That set up Serra to defend against Hughes in a fight filled with animosity.

Meanwhile, St. Pierre defeated Josh Koscheck in August to earn No. 1 contender status in the division, which was supposed to lead to a matchup with the winner of the Serra-Hughes fight.

The extent of Serra's injury is not yet known, so the title of interim champion that the winner of this fight earns could become an undisputed tag if Serra misses a prolonged amount of time.

But the reason for making this an interim title fight was more about entertainment, according to UFC president Dana White. Under the organization's rules, all fights are three rounds, except for championship bouts.

"I just wanted to see these guys go five rounds, and that's the only way we could make that happen," White said.

Hughes, 34, has been around the sport professionally for nearly 10 years and has been one of the beneficiaries of the rapid increase in exposure and financial rewards for the fighters.

"I'm beyond fighting for money at this point," Hughes said. "I fight for battles, and you always know Georges is going to be ready and he's going to give you a war."

The 10-fight card at Mandalay Bay also features the light heavyweight bout between Chuck Liddell and Wanderlei Silva and the UFC debut of Rameau Sokoudjou.

Contact reporter Adam Hill at ahill@ reviewjournal.com or (702) 224-5509.