St. Pierre’s focus turns fuzzy, with good reason

An almost laser-like focus on the task at hand often has been credited as one of the keys to the immense success of Georges St. Pierre during his Ultimate Fighting Championship career.

The longtime welterweight champion usually works with strategy guru Greg Jackson, and St. Pierre sticks to the game plan better than anyone else in the UFC.

As he prepares to return from a long injury layoff, however, St. Pierre admits there was one time when he lost all focus during a fight. He revealed the humorous slip-up to Dave Deibert of Postmedia News in Canada.

"One time I was fighting against BJ Penn. I had his back against the fence. I'm not kidding you, for a few seconds I look and I was staring at a beautiful woman in the audience. It was (Cindy Crawford). I stared at her. I'm thinking, 'My God, she's so beautiful. And she's looking at me.' And just next to her, I see her husband looking at me, and I'm like, 'Oh, my God. I can't look at her. Her husband's looking at me.'

"Now I'm thinking, 'Of course they're looking at me. I'm doing the show right now, and I'm in the middle of the fight.' So I'm like, 'Go back to your focus.' "

St. Pierre defends the belt against Carlos Condit at UFC 154 tonight in Montreal.

This story of St. Pierre's love of hot women of the 1990s going public finally explains why Condit will have Alicia Silverstone, Jenny McCarthy and Tiffani Amber Thiessen working his corner.

■ COLD WAR - With NHL players and owners seemingly far enough apart in the labor negotiations that a two-week cooling-off period has been proposed, at least things have not gotten really ugly yet.

Or maybe they have and we just haven't been paying attention. Either way, we couldn't help but notice the comments by Detroit Red Wings defenseman Ian White as he talked with Ansar Khan of MLive.com about NHL commissioner Gary Bettman.

"(I've) got to be honest, I personally think he's an idiot,'' White said. "Since he's come in, I think he's done nothing but damage the game."

That seems helpful. It's also completely unfair. Bettman's actions have not improved or worsened the game.

Nobody cared about hockey before he took over, and nobody cares now.

■ ROCK CHALK, EMPTY SEATS - While Charlie Weis appears to have his first Kansas team improving, wins have been difficult for the coach to come by in Lawrence.

The Jayhawks have not won since their season opener against South Dakota State, and attendance has not been great, even in the student section.

Weis wants to make sure there's a good home crowd today for his departing players on senior night against Iowa State. To help make that happen, he announced he would personally pay the $10 charge for any students who show up.

It's a nice gesture and one that is probably necessary to turn out a good crowd even for what could possibly be the Jayhawks' second win.

There is one sure way for the Kansas football players to play in front of a big crowd, though. Join the basketball team.

COMPILED BY ADAM HILL
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL