When Georges St Pierre was headkicked by Carlos Condit during round four of UFC 154, I bet only one person broke into a cold sweat worse than GSP’s own camp.
It wasn’t champ Anderson Sliva – he was too busy trying not to laugh after his friend Machida poked him in the ribs and mumbled ‘super fight’.
It wasn’t Hendricks, because he was sitting backstage chanting ‘down with the king’ and it certainly wasn’t Nick Diaz who was probably enjoying a refreshing medicinal with his homies somewhere in Orange County.
It was Dana White who swallowed the lump in his throat as his plans for a super-fight between GSP and Silva flew out the window for one fleeting minute – where they should stay.
The fight itself was strong. GSP did push the action more than I thought he would. He ground-out a decent win and was pushed out of his comfort zone more than usual by Condit which was great.
He won, yes, but GSP didn’t get the highlight vision win which we all wanted. It was a tough and ugly struggle for him, and Condit left GSP with a face to prove the encounter.
GSP looked like he needed medical attention after the fight and I think Condit could have gone for a beer. GSP has now fought 125 minutes without stopping an opponent.
GSP needs a defining win to go into a super fight with Sliva. The UFC still needs to legitimise the super fight for it to have merit.
And so enters Hendricks. And I want him to fight GSP before Silva.
Hendricks has won three fights in a row against top welterweight opponents. He has won the knockout of the night bonus in three of his last five fights and in the process KO’d a guy (Kampmann) who has never been knocked out in his MMA career.
Hendricks is the perfect opponent for GSP. Hendricks will get either the win or legitimise GSP’s super-fight stature. Plus it would act as another tune-up fight and mean GSP could own the record for the most welterweight title defences that he now shares with Hughes if he wins against Hendricks.
The division has waited too long for the champ to return. To have GSP run off now and fight someone else is unfair to a division that has seen only few title defences recently.
It’s wrong to the fans and the fighters alike. GSP needs to fight Hendricks next, not Silva.
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