By Ryan Young
The storyline couldn’t have been written any better if it were a Hollywood movie script.
National superstar and long reigning UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre returning from a career-threatening injury that required an extensive layoff to fight in front of his hometown crowd against the unquestioned No. 1 contender.
All that’s left is a big victory and the ensuing celebration, right?
But what if GSP he loses? What if he’s the not the same dominant pre-injury fighter we’ve become accustomed to? What if he’s simply outclassed by his opponent Carlos Condit? Would that ruin the storybook ending?
For a lot of people, yes it would. The casual Canadian fan will be tuning in Saturday night on pay-per-view for the sole purpose of seeing St-Pierre retain his title, a knockout or submission just an additional icing on the cake.
But for those diehards out there like myself, seeing Condit emerge from UFC 154 with the title may be an even more inspirational story than if the favoured St-Pierre retains his belt.
Condit, 28, has been nothing short of a class act throughout his entire decade-long fighting career. When originally offered the fight with GSP last October he wept after being given the opportunity. When GSP withdrew due to an injury, he had no problem giving the champ until February to recover.
When GSP asked to fight Nick Diaz instead of him, a matchup the UFC also wanted due to the potential drawing power, Condit stepped aside so that it could happen. With GSP injured again, Condit stepped up and took an interim title bout with Diaz. He won the fight unanimously on the judge’s scorecards but still agreed to give Diaz a rematch until the California native was suspended for a failed drug test.
Not only has Condit shown he’ll fight whomever/whenever the UFC asks, he’s exhibited an aura of professionalism and respect towards his fellow competitors that has been missing this year with all the antics of Chael Sonnen and Jon Jones.
“I’m honoured to have the chance to compete against Georges,” Condit said at Wednesday’s UFC 154 pre-fight press conference. “He is someone I’ve admired as a fighter for a long time. But he’s where I want to be, he’s the top guy in the sport, top guy in the division. He has cemented a legacy as the best welterweight in the world and that’s what I want.
“So all admiration aside, I’m coming to take that from him.”
It was so much easier hating on St-Pierre’s challenger when he fought the trash talking Josh Koscheck at UFC 124 in December 2010. Koscheck had an entire season of the The Ultimate Fighter to tell fans how much better he was than the welterweight champion and how he was going to take him out, much to the chagrin of the Montreal audience in attendance.
That hasn’t been the case at all with Condit, who true to his character has not engaged in any smack talk. And in turn, there was not a boo that could be heard for the American at Friday’s weigh-ins in Montreal.
Still, there’s no doubt that Condit truly believes he can not only compete with St-Pierre, but beat him as well. That being said, the well-spoken Albuquerque, N.M., native has been extremely humble when addressing the fight with GSP while still exuding a great deal of confidence, a style of promotion that many feel the UFC should embrace to distance itself from the likes of professional wrestling.
“I thought less about Georges during this training camp than I did about improving myself. Sometimes I would watch tape on Georges … but it wasn’t this all-encompassing thing,” Condit said. “Ultimately it comes down to who’s better prepared, who can implement their game plan, and who can impose their will.”
With a GSP vs. Anderson Silva super-fight looming over UFC 154 weekend, Condit has every right to be up in arms about possibly being overlooked. He’s 13-1 in last 14 fights with the lone loss coming by way of a questionable split-decision loss to Martin Kampmann in his UFC debut, one of the best resumes of a St-Pierre title challenger in history.
So despite all the attention being given to the possibility of the super-fight, even if St-Pierre won’t address it, Condit hasn’t even let the fact some people have wrote him off already rattle him.
“I don’t feel disrespected,” he said in regards to talk of a potential GSP/Silva fight. “But first Georges and I have to get in there and mix it up.”
The movie script has been all but completed, but it’s still missing one thing — a villain.
And that’s because whoever walks out of the Bell Centre the champion on Saturday deserves every moment’s worth of a Hollywood ending.
Ryan Young is the lead reporter for MMA360.ca and a regular contributor to Sportsnet.ca’s MMA section. Follow him on Twitter @YoungRyan4.
