Jiu-jitsu coach: Georges St-Pierre looked like his old self in no time

MONTREAL – For a man who thinks deeply through life's every aspect – or for a guy with a master's in philosophy, as John Danaher is – the fight camp of Georges St-Pierre has posed several interesting problems.

Danaher, St-Pierre's jiu-jitsu coach of nearly a decade, never had to contend with serious injuries while training the welterweight fighter, as he was forced to do when a torn ACL preceded St-Pierre's title unification bout with Carlos Condit at UFC 154.

Nor did Danaher have to bring St-Pierre's skills up to par so quickly. Just eight weeks separated the end of the fighter's rehabilitation from the fight that headlines Saturday's pay-per-view event at Montreal's Bell Centre.

What's more, the matchup presented "a strange character" of an opponent in Condit, with more complexity than previous matchups. And there were no tune-up fights to smooth these transitions.

"Between the nature of mixed martial arts itself and the unique elements of this fight camp, of course, uncertainty is rampant," Danaher told MMAjunkie.com.

Whether it was Danaher, longtime coach Firas Zahabi or any number of specialists invited into help St-Pierre for his first fight in 19 months, the camp appears to have been a success. During a media scrum broken into French- and English-language sections, a smiling champ spoke Thursday of his "new fire" for fighting. St-Pierre said he wasn't overtraining anymore and felt more refreshed than ever coming into a fight camp.

He also espoused the benefits of the James-Lange theory, which links reactions in the autonomous nervous system with emotions, rather than emotions causing such reactions.

Danaher couldn't answer whether the positive changes in St-Pierre's process would have happened had he not been injured training for Nick Diaz at UFC 143, but the setback forced the camp to change its approach.

"I think we're starting to go toward the idea of peaking Georges later in the fight camp so that we don't bring him to a peak, and hold him for extended periods of time, where there's a danger of burnout," Danaher said.

However, the coach admitted this camp was perhaps more difficult than any other in St-Pierre's career.

The fighter Danaher met in December 2011, immediately following corrective surgery, had less athleticism than "a 60-year-old man." When the two began training for Condit in September, things weren't much better. Physical limitations forced St-Pierre to begin training on the mat exclusively from the bottom position to save his knees.

"You're talking about an elite combat athlete that hasn't done any combat sport for one year," Danaher said. "Nothing other than physical rehabilitation, which, of course, doesn't count as combat training. So he started fight camp at the lowest point he's ever really been at in his career."

The first four weeks, Danaher said, were "a rough patch." But at the end of the eight-week camp, he was performing like the welterweight champion who's dominated his division for five years.

What saved St-Pierre?

The coach believes it wasn't St-Pierre's body that had adjusted. It was his mind.

"One of the biggest misconceptions of Georges in MMA circles is they attribute most of his success to his physical attributes," Danaher said. "They see athleticism or athletic ability as the basis of his success.

"In fact, that is not the case. Georges is a good athlete. He's certainly above average. But if you put him in a comprehensive physical testing amongst other elite athletes in football, hockey or basketball, he would be average at best.

"He's not some crazy uber-athlete that people think (he is). He's fast, but not extraordinarily fast. He's strong, but not extraordinarily strong. He's flexible in some ways, and shockingly inflexible in others. He's a good athlete, but he's not stunningly good. The basis of his success is technical prowess gained over time with a combination of determination and hard work."

Danaher, a Renzo Gracie-trained black-belt in jiu-jitsu, said Condit is unique because he's only been submitted three times in a 33-fight career. The product of Greg Jackson and Mike Winkeljohn scores "incredibly few" takedowns yet has spent more than 50 percent of his time in top position while on the octagon mat. He's a fighter who can follow a strict game plan or "fight from total chaos."

On Saturday night, Danaher believes Condit will choose the latter.

"He knows Georges is a rhythm-based fighter, and he fights with a broken rhythm," Danaher said. "He'll be stronger if the fight is a messy, scrappy, hard-nosed fight, which tests the physical resilience and conditioning of both athletes. He's a guy who's never been out-conditioned in a fight. He's coming up against an athlete that hasn't been in a fight for over a year. So I believe his thing will be to create chaos, create exhaustion, and then his intent will be to either knock or submit an exhausted Georges St-Pierre."

With so many challenges ahead on Saturday, the grappling coach has found himself thinking about the cutthroat nature of being champion in the UFC.

"In most sports, they draw someone back from an injury," Danaher said. "In this sport, it's straight to the dogs. Of course, I would love to have two tune-up fights. But in this sport, it's not happening. Unfortunately, the fight camp sparring is the only tune-up he's going to get."

For his part, St-Pierre took questions of his preparedness in stride. He's fought the toughest men the welterweight division has had to offer for more than five years. He might never have had to fight them under such circumstances, but publicly, he didn't show any signs of stress.

And if he did, he wouldn't be following James-Lang.

"It means, 'I'm scared, I'm nervous, I can't wait,' but I act like it's all good, and I'm all good," St-Pierre said. "My body will dictate my mind."

Steven Marrocco writes for MMAJunkie.com, a USA TODAY Sports Media property.