Ring Psychology Exclusive: Maximum Fighting Championship Owner Mark Pavelich on Dana White, Georges St. Pierre and His Partnership With HDNet

To Maximum Fighting Championship owner Mark Pavelich, being the best MMA promotion in Canada is like being the best hockey team in Israel. It might be a nice accolade, but it doesn't place you among the world's elite. Pavelich joined me on Ring Psychology (streaming at Angry Marks and downloadable at I-Tunes) today and said he wants more. With a new business like approach, he's looking to take MFC to the next level - and with a new six card contract with HDNet in his back pocket, fans throughout the continent will be along for the ride.

Pavelich calls himself the second best interview in the sport, taking a back seat only to the UFC's Chael Sonnen. Does he live up to that hype? He talks trash about everyone from the Georges St. Pierre to Scott Coker and pulls no punches. Have a listen and see for yourself or download from iTunes. Some highlights:

On Learning from the Best: Of course I followed DW's (UFC President Dana White) show. I watched what he did lots. When I got Jason MacDonald on their show, because I used to manage and train Jason MacDonald for years, I used to sit in the arena and watch the setup of their shows. Because there's no university to go to learn to promote mixed martial arts. I would sit there and watch how they did the lighting, watch how they did this and that. It was funny. My son was real young at that time and Dana would call him over 'Hey Dave, come over here and I'll show you how this works.' We had a nice relationship.

On Why He Hopes Dana Cleans Up His Act: You'll notice when we do an interview, I don't drop the F-bomb. Just a basic fundamental of life. When you're in the professional sports business, you don't do that. Does it go through my head 47 times during an interview? Of course it does. But it doesn't come out of my mouth.  Those are the little basic things. Because I know owners of sports organizations...the number one thing they say is they can't believe how certain people act in our business. They think that's the reason why we can't get to that next level. Because of that type of thing. 

On GSP: I can't stand watching Georges St. Pierre fight. I put him in the same category as watching Scott Coker talk. God, it kills me. You know? I want to watch people like Ryan Ford fight. I want to watch people like Jon Jones fight. I want to watch Clay Guida fight. I want to watch people like Tom Watson from England who fights for the Maximum Fighting Championship. I want to watch him fight. Because I know he's going to do dirty shit to people. I know he's going to kick someone in the head.

Clarifying his Promise to Fire Anyone Who Pulls Guard: Internet geeks don't know me. They don't know me in a personal way. The make all the stupid comments at all these places. They say these things...when I say pull guard, I mean when you are standing flat footed in front of a guy and all of the sudden you jump to your back. And then you try to butt scoot around the ring trying to catch up to him. While he's still standing? That's the kind of stuff I'm talking about. If you're getting the snot beat out of you and you jump to guard, I understand that....but when I see a guy chasing another guy, butt scooting on the ground, trying to pull him into guard? If you do that in my organization, you can go to one of those shows that's going to be out of business next year.

MFC 26 debuts on the network live on Friday, September 10th. The show is headline by Antonio McKee versus Luciano Azevedo and features Tom Watson, Jesse Taylor, and home grown prospect Ryan Ford.

MFC 26: Retribution coverage