UFC 154: The champ is back

How’s this for water under the bridge? The last time George St-Pierre entered the Octagon, light-heavyweight champion Jon Jones was only an upstart, who lucked his way into a title fight and there were no questions in the MMA world as to which two fighters ruled the roost.

Two knee injuries, a year-and-a-half later and the Canadian makes his long overdue return to the ring, with questions to answer and a legacy to protect.

So much has happened since his last outing all the way back in April 2011, it is almost hard to remember just how dominate St-Pierre was before his stint of the sidelines.

To help shake that haze let’s recap. Since winning the interim welterweight title at UFC 79, GSP’s record has been as close to perfect as you could possibly get in MMA.

Over nine fights against guys like Matt Hughes, B.J. Penn, Jon Fitch and Josh Koscheck, St Pierre went over 30 rounds without losing a single round on the scoreboard.

To put it simply, he out-classed, out-smarted and out-manoeuvred every opponent, at every single moment of every single fight.

No other fighter in the UFC has come remotely close to this kind of stat. It was a new display of dominance, and while knocking everyone in your division out may be flashier, what GSP achieved between UFC 69 and 129 was equally, if not more impressive.

But that is water under the bridge now.

GSP has since been rudely shunted from the main-stage spotlight by a rampaging Jon Jones and the ever-green Anderson Silva, who have both used this time to cement themselves at the summit of the sport.

Furthermore the UFC welterweight division is now stocked with a new interim champion and a bunch of new potential title contenders, all looking to dethrone the returning champ.

Despite his impressive resume, GSP also has a number of questions hanging over his head going into this weekend’s bout. The loudest of all of these being: how much will nearly a year and a half out of the ring effect his performance?

Historically fighters haven’t done so well at the championship level after such long lay-offs. This time last year Cain Velsaquez lost the heavyweight championship after a year off, before that, Shogun Rua looked utterly sluggish when he attempted to defend his title against Jon Jones after just 10 months in waiting.

Running into a fresh faced, pumped up challenger isn’t always the best way to shake off the feared ring rust.

Ironically enough, interim champ Carlos Condit’s decision to sit on the sidelines and wait for St-Pierre’s return before fighting may give GSP the ease back into the cage he needs.

Condit is a fierce fighter, don’t get me wrong, but he hasn’t faced off against anyone since early February and may also be looking to rid himself of some cobwebs.

St-Pierre has always been the king of exploiting his opponents weaknesses, so even factoring in GSP’s the long layoff, Condit will have to be at the top of his game if he wants to match it with St-Pierre.

The other issue St-Pierre must face is the ‘boring’ tag he was beginning to be labelled with towards the end of 2010. While his run through the welterweight division was impressive, droves of fans complained that too often St-Pierre played it safe and stuck back, simply scoring points instead of pushing to end the fight.

For his part, in the lead up to this weekend GSP has claimed numerous times that he will go for the knockout or submission if the opportunity presents itself.

Ultimately though, after such a long layoff, St-Pierre will be happy simply to have his hand raised at the end of the night.

Make no mistake, a fit and firing GSP is a good thing for the MMA world as a whole.

Before his injury he was the most reliable ticket and pay-per-view selling fighter on the UFC roster.

The welterweight roster is also teeming with possible match-ups and Dana White has also hinted a super-fight against Anderson Silva may be on the cards if GSP makes a winning return, a fight fans were falling over themselves for two years ago.

First though, GSP must strap on the gloves shake off the cobwebs, make his return and answer the questions hanging over his head and legacy.