Carlos Condit's Trainer Discusses Preparing For Georges St-Pierre

Source: Sherdog

Mike Winkeljohn, one of the head trainers at Greg Jackson's MMA in New Mexico, is the man responsible for preparing Carlos Condit for his UFC welterweight title fight with Georges St-Pierre at UFC 137.

Now, with St-Pierre sidelined due to a knee injury, Winkeljohn has time to continue working on a plan to end GSP's reign and start Condit's. The trainer has worked with both men, however, "The Natural Born Killer" is more his pupil than St-Pierre ever was.

"I have worked mitts with Georges in the past, but gosh, less (times) than the fingers on my hand," said Winkeljohn on Sherdog Radio Network's "Beatdown" show recently. "It's an honor to have worked with him a little bit, but I definitely wasn't one of his coaches. Heck, I'm excited about having Carlos fight him. It's one of those things, it's just what we do. It's kind of neat to have to game plan against his other coaches up there in Canada. It's kind of an honor, and we're excited about doing it."

Winkeljohn was originally training Condit to fight BJ Penn, but that fight was dropped and Condit was placed in the main event with GSP. Now, after having a few new ideas come up in practice, Winkeljohn has time to implement them.

"Maybe it's a blessing in disguise. We had a game plan. We felt good with it, but Chris Luttrell and I were talking about some things we'd like to see Carlos do, but we figured it was too late," Winkeljohn said. "In a way, now we can come up with a couple of more things to put in a couple of better positions for this fight."

It is unknown when GSP-Condit may take place, but St-Pierre has mentioned being ready in late January or February of 2012.

Dana Becker is a staff writer for FightLine.com. He can be followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/DanaBecker.