After UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre defeated Carlos Condit by unanimous decision at last Saturday’s UFC 154 in Montreal, one of the natural questions was who he would fight next.
There had already been plenty of talk about a super-fight with middleweight champ Anderson Silva (one that UFC president Dana White said the day before would be a go for May). But then Johny Hendricks made his claim at the next title shot with an emphatic first-round KO of Martin Kampmann in the co-main event (with White admitted afterward that probably put him next in line.)
And then there’s Nick Diaz, who seems to have his own stake at getting a shot at St-Pierre, and is possibly the fighter that GSP himself wants to face the most.
Very quickly, those are the three names that have emerged, so in a special “triple threat match” version of point-counterpoint, three Sportsnet.ca MMA contributors — E. Spencer Kyte, Mike Johnston and Carlin Bardsley — debate which matchup makes the most sense right now.
Cast your vote as to whose case you like best…
WHO SHOULD GSP FIGHT NEXT?
Kyte: Hendricks is the legitimate No. 1 contender
I know it sounds like a quaint idea, but I kind of like it when champions actually defend their titles regularly and the guys they face have actually earned their way into challenging for the title.
Strange, I know, but tell me it doesn’t make sense?
St-Pierre just spent 18 months on the sidelines, returned to defeat Carlos Condit, and we’re going to put the welterweight title back on the shelf already? If that happens — and the proposed super-fight with Silva goes down in May as suggested — it means the belt will have been defended once in two years. Regardless of the circumstances, that’s crazy.
The division has already been in a holding pattern for a year and a half, and there is no need to press pause on the title chase again so quickly. This is why I think Hendricks is the right choice as GSP’s next opponent.
He’s done everything you could ask of a potential title challenger, having notched five consecutive wins, including a 12-second knockout win over Jon Fitch, and a tough decision over Josh Koscheck. Last weekend, he starched Martin Kampmann in 46 seconds to earn Knockout of the Night. He’s is in a position where there is no other fight that makes sense for him, and he’s never going to have greater momentum (and marketability) than he does right now.
This isn’t the WWE where you line up the champion with whoever is over with the crowd and put them in a two-month program that culminates on pay-per-view. Challengers should have to earn title shots. Hendricks, not Diaz who is coming off a loss, has done that, and he shouldn’t have to wait a year to get what he deserves.
Johnston: Diaz deserves it and would be very marketable
St-Pierre should fight Nick Diaz next because he, not Hendricks, is the most marketable opponent for the UFC to match GSP with at 170 pounds and GSP clearly wants to stay at welterweight.
Not only that, but St-Pierre actually wants to fight Diaz; he really doesn’t like the Stockton bad boy. When have you ever seen GSP so fired up than before both UFC 137 and UFC 143, the two events that they were scheduled to fight at before GSP injuries forced changes?
After Georges’ win over Condit at UFC 154, Diaz tweeted at GSP: “I am not impressed by your performance,” poking fun at what GSP said to Matt Hughes after Hughes’ win over BJ Penn at UFC 63. The UFC can easily use that quote, the fact that Diaz would be returning for the first time in over a year, plus the fact that St-Pierre is back and better than ever in order to market GSP-Diaz. The fact is, Diaz can’t be more marketable than he already is right now.
It’s also difficult to argue that Diaz doesn’t deserve a title shot simply because he’s coming off a loss to Condit — a fight many people actually scored in favour of Diaz. Think about it, Chael Sonnen is in line for a title shot against Jon Jones and he was TKO’d in his last bout by Silva, while Frankie Edgar has lost two in a row yet he’s getting a title shot as well.
Not to mention Diaz had at one point been the No. 1 contender, and only lost it for failing to show up to a press conference, not by losing a fight. Meanwhile two of Hendricks’ victories in his current five-fight win streak were by split-decision and many actually scored them for his opponent.
Ultimately, the UFC is in the business of putting together marketable fights and short of them somehow finding a weight that both St-Pierre and Silva will be comfortable at, right now GSP-Diaz is the most realistic marketable fight for the welterweight champ.
Bardsley: Silva-GSP is a super-fight we’ve all been waiting for
Silva and St-Pierre have been circling each other for years in the biggest potential fight under the UFC umbrella. They have ruled their respective divisions for as long as we can remember, with the exception of GSP’s blip-on-the-radar loss to Matt Serra. The MMA fanbase has been rife with anticipation of this showdown for so long, it has turned into MMA’s version of Manny Pacquiao vs. Floyd Mayweather.
It’s not only MMA fans who are clamouring for the bout, White is as excited about the prospect of Silva-GSP as any fight he can possibly make right now. He has openly mused that the fight could be the UFC’s next foray into a stadium-sized venue. No other match-up for either gentleman carries that type of cachet. The dream match scenario reaches even the most casual of fans who have seen these two dominant champions and wondered “what if?”
There are those who object to GSP and Silva fighting each other much the same way they objected to Jones vs. Sonnen, throwing around terms like “integrity” and “sanctity” and other words that sound a lot better when applied to things more important in life than combat sports. But like Jones-Sonnen, not one person has said he/she will not watch the fight out of protest.
While Hendricks’ big UFC 154 win did open some eyes, derailing a super-fight for a guy with as little notoriety as him would just be ridiculous. Instead, giving Hendricks more time to acquaint himself with the UFC fanbase and giving himself the aura of a legit PPV main eventer will only be in his — and everyone else’s — favour when he eventually gets his title shot.
Meanwhile, Diaz is coming off a loss to a man GSP just dominated, not to mention a year-long suspension for a failed drug test. As much as people want to see it, now is not the time for the GSP-Diaz grudge match.
In short, putting GSP and Silva opposite each other not only makes sound business sense, the bottom line is that it’s the fight that MMA fans want to see.
POLL:
Whose case do you like best (who should GSP fight next)?
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E. Spencer Kyte is a regular contributor to ufc.com, UFC Magazine, and Fight Magazine, and writes the MMA blog Keyboard Kimura. Follow him on Twitter @spencerkyte.
Mike Johnston is a Digital Content Editor with Sportsnet.ca and blogs regularly on MMA. Follow him on Twitter @MikeyJ_MMA.
Carlin Bardsley is a writer for MMASucka.com and the host of a daily MMA radio show on NextSportStar.com. Follow him on Twitter @CarlinBardsley.
