When he starts rolling, so do the cameras and tape recorders.
UFC Welterweight champion and East Meadow native Matt Serra was at Manhattan's Renzo Gracie Jiu-Jitsu on Friday. A place that the 33-year-old knows well. It is where the Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt began his training. It was this gym he would come to after working the midnight-to-8 a.m. shift as a security guard for Estee Lauder on Long Island.
Serra is jovial when he recounts that experience. In fact, he is jovial when he recounts many of his experiences to the media. It is that attitude that enabled the Long Islander to stay loose within the Octagon and defeat heavy-favorite Georges St. Pierre for the title at UFC 69 last April. St. Pierre may and does have all the mixed martial arts talent to be the greatest fighter pound-for-pound, but Serra is a gamer -- he's clutch. His jaw and spirit have been hardened by the same neighborhood where his thick accent comes from. He's a tough New Yorker that defied the odds and shocked the mixed martial arts world.
But Serra and St. Pierre are going to do it again -- one April later -- for the same belt.
"Dude, I'm ready," Serra said of his April 19th bout against St. Pierre in his hometown of Montreal. "I'm loose as a goose. I'm ready to shock the world twice."
Serra, who said he was listed as a 14-1 underdog in their first fight, overwhelmed St. Pierre standing up, a place where the Canadian was supposed to dominate. Serra told me after his last fight that he did 80 rounds of sparring in preparation for that matchup.
"What I wanted to do was just make Matt as comfortable standing up so that he wasn't forced to go to the ground," Serra's standup and kickboxing coach Ray Longo said. "And I saw Matt Hughes had done so many things wrong that I think made GSP look good. Once I squared up Matt's defense, I knew he wasn't in trouble. By not being in trouble, would allow Matt an opportunity to get off some of his stuff also, and to me that was the difference in the fight."
Serra, who originally earned the title shot against St. Pierre after winning his season of The Ultimate Fighter on SpikeTV, feels fine about making the trip up to Montreal.
"I think it's going to be a lot more pressure on him," Serra said. "I'm going to have 22,000 people booing for me. It's fine, let it rain down on me. I'm good."
Serra was originally supposed to defend his title against Hughes on December 29 of last year. But because of a herniated disc, Serra was forced to withdraw and St. Pierre took his place for the right to fight for what at the time was the interim title. St. Pierre dominated Hughes en route to earning the interim title.
But how's Serra's back feeling now?
"Perfect," the champ said on Friday.