If this column were to appear in the business section, there would be plenty of talk about the future economy and emerging markets.
How Asia will rule the world?s wallet based on its population alone.
There would be pie charts and numbers laying it all out and a pointy-headed expert explaining the minutiae of consumerism in cumbersome detail.
The UFC is as much a business as a sport and the promise of even bigger profits isn?t lost upon the company?s top brass.
So last week, they sent welterweight champ Georges St. Pierre on a publicity tour of the Philippines.
What the Montrealer saw blew him away.
Constantly flanked by bodyguards, St. Pierre said he couldn?t walk down the street without being recognized.
?I felt like the president of the United States,? says St. Pierre (20-2), who at 29 has been one of the most recognizable UFC fighters for the past half-decade.
?If people think I?m popular in (North America), they should have seen how it is over there. It was insane. I needed to have three bodyguards everywhere I went and people were stopping their cars and buses in the street to come see me. I couldn?t believe my eyes. It?s hard to believe that the sport is even more popular than even in America.?
St. Pierre touched down in Manila before 5 a.m., yet there was a crowd of fans and news cre
