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With his five-round classic drubbing of the uber-tough Jon Fitch on Saturday night, Georges St. Pierre did the last thing that he needed to in order to bring himself all the way back from his shocking loss to Matt Serra at UFC 69: He defended his title. That is the mark of a great fighter.
Great is the number of champions who have won the belt, only to fall to the first warm body to enter the ring or cage to challenge for it. But as St. Pierre repeatedly staggered his deserving challenger during their championship fight, he set the stage to become a champion that will reign over the Welterweight Division for an interminable amount of time.
The Canadian is only 27 years old – an age when many fighters are only coming into their own and entering the time where they’ll begin a title hunt. The scary thing about GSP is that he could still conceivably get better. And that’s a scary prospect for a division that currently boasts not one fighter who poses a serious threat to GSP’s reign as champion. But I’m getting ahead of myself here. Who’s out there that could at least fight for the title in the future? Let’s have a look at a still-stacked division that will keep St. Pierre busy for the next little while.
THE CHAMP
Georges St. Pierre (17-2): The man described in the above paragraph brings perhaps the most well-rounded game to the table of any fighter in MMA today. He is capable of dominating accomplished wrestlers (Jon Fitch, Matt Hughes, Josh Koscheck, Frank Trigg, etc.), and making people pay dearly for attempting to strike with him (Hughes again, Sean Sherk, Jay Hieron). But add to that an ability to pull off submissions as well (as he almost did against Koscheck had he known at the time how to disengage Kos’s hand from his apparel to pull of a kimura) and you’ve got a specimen that is the prototype for the modern mixed martial artist. Anderson Silva or Fedor Emelianenko may be the world’s top pound-for-pound fighter, but GSP is not far behind.
THE CONTENDER
Thiago Alves (15-3): “The Pitbull” is perhaps more dangerous on the feet than anyone else in the welterweight division. If any fighter can make GSP think twice about standing up, it’s Alves. But the ace-in-the-hole for Alves is excellent takedown defense. He showed it against an admittedly much smaller Matt Hughes at UFC 85, and if that was no fluke, he could give Diego Sanchez fits when they meet at UFC 90. Should Sanchez be able to solve the puzzle that Alves presents, he’ll move into this category. But until then, Alves stands alone as the number one contender.
A STEP OR TWO AWAY
Diego Sanchez (19-2): After his Fight-of-the-Year win over Karo Parisyan two years ago, which he followed up with a quick win over Joe Riggs in December, Sanchez seemed primed for a title shot. Then, of course, he ran into a staph infection and a lackluster defeat at the hands of Josh Koscheck, which he followed with a split decision loss to the juggernaut known as Jon Fitch. Sanchez has rebounded with two impressive wins, but his fight with Alves will determine his standing, and perhaps his near future, in the welterweight division. Should Sanchez lose to Alves, I’d like to see a rematch with Koscheck.
Karo Parisyan (18-5): In my mind, Parisyan will always be in this or the Contender category until he receives the title shot that he was supposed to get in 2005. We were robbed of seeing him fight Matt Hughes, so it would be against the more dangerous GSP (who bested the Armenian in January of 2004). The problem is that Parisyan finds himself in a position where he needs to beat some top talent in order to actually earn another title shot, and it certainly wouldn’t hurt his case if he could stop someone on the way. Parisyan’s last stoppage win came in 2006 over Nick Thompson, and his last three fights against top talent (GSP in ’04, Sanchez in ’06, and Alves this year) have all resulted in defeat. So those are the roadblocks that stand in front of Parisyan right now. What he needs to do is re-motivate himself, start showing up in shape for fights, and be in the business of winning. His first test will come against Yoshiyuki Yoshida next month. If Parisyan underestimates the relative newcomer (as he has a tendency of doing), he might find himself once again standing without his hand raised.
UP AND COMERS
Chris Wilson (14-4): Wilson made his Octagon debut at UFC 82, making Jon Fitch work for a decision victory. It was Fitch’s superior wrestling that won the day in that bout, but it didn’t come easy. That stands as the lone blemish in Wilson’s last six fights; a span in which he’s taken out fighters such as Jay Hieron and Rory Markham. Wilson’s unorthodox striking style makes him a difficult opponent, as he proved when he battered Steve Bruno for three rounds on Saturday. I think a scrap with someone like Mike Swick could prove to be pretty intriguing.
Tamdan McCrory (9-1): McCrory is an up-and-comer in a true sense of the phrase. At a mere 21 years old, he’ll have a long way to go before he’s in title contention. But if he continues to develop at his current pace, he’s going to cause some problems for fighters down the road with his long reach and deceptive power. He has lost only once, to Akihiro Gono, and with his win over Luke Cummo on Saturday, McCrory continues to prove that he belongs in the UFC. He shouldn’t be fighting top competition yet, but a fight with Jonathan Goulet might tell us if he can take a punch.
Rory Markham (16-4): Former IFL standout Markham made some noise with his devastating head kick knockout of Brodie Farber at UFC Fight Night 14 in July. Markham has a propensity for finishing fights (he’s never gone the distance), and has a well-rounded style that makes him a tough matchup. It’s hard to hold his IFL defeats against him, since he fought for the promotion a whopping 10 times in two years, going 8-2 in that span. Markham would put on a good show with Marcus Davis if the opportunity presented itself, although it could be a dangerous prospect for Markham, whose four losses have all come by way of knockout.
Anthony Johnson (5-2): Johnson is another prospect who is still a bit green, but whose athleticism and fight-ending power will keep him in every fight. The fact that the TKO decision went against him in his fight with Kevin Burns is ludicrous, as it clearly should have been a DQ in Johnson’s favor, and the only other loss for Johnson came when he fell to the much more experienced Rich Clementi by rear naked choke. Johnson’s wrestling might not be good enough for a Josh Koscheck at this point (though that’s a good fight somewhere down the road), but I’d like to see what he could do against Luigi Fioravanti or Josh Burkman.
Dong Hyun Kim (10-0-1): Korea’s top welterweight prospect had a fantastic run in the DEEP promotion before making his way to the UFC, where he promptly devastated Jason Tan with elbows in his debut. It looks like the UFC is interested in giving Kim another showcase bout, as he’ll fight Matt Brown on the undercard of next month’s UFC 88 event in what will presumably be a slugfest.
ON THE REBOUND
Jon Fitch (17-3): Make no mistake – Fitch had his face, and possibly some internal organs, rearranged by the best welterweight on the planet. But if there’s any such thing as a star-making loss, this was it. Fitch showed unbelievable grit and durability, not to mention a ridiculously sturdy chin, in his defeat. People will want to see what he’s capable of against fighters that they know. He’s a teammate of Josh Koscheck, which is disappointing in that the two will probably not fight each other in what could potentially be a very good contest. I’d like to see a bout between Fitch and a motivated Karo Parisyan. That would have the makings of a classic.
THE POOL OF CONTENDERS
The pool is crowded here in the Welterweight division. Full enough, in fact, that we’ve got two former champions and multiple top ten fighters. Of course, the reason for this is that the king of the division has vanquished every top ten fighter that he’s faced, putting them out of contention at least for a little while. The size of the pool only serves to reiterate the dominance of one of the best fighters on the planet.
Speaking of former champions, let’s start with Matt Hughes (42-7). It’s not often that you come across a fighter with 42 wins in the pool, but after back-to-back crushing losses at the hands of Georges St. Pierre and Thiago Alves, that’s exactly where we find Hughes. The former dominant force has at least one more fight in him, after which it remains to be seen whether he will continue to fight or hang up the gloves. That fight will come against the other former champion in our pool, Matt Serra (9-5). Serra met the same fate at the hands of GSP that Hughes did. These two were on a collision course for each other as far back as this time last year, so that fight will likely happen when both men are healthy. Another of the UFC older guard, Chris Lytle (25-16-5), has fallen on hard times as of late. Lytle blew through Jason Gilliam (9-2), Matt Brown (7-6) in a non-UFC bout, and natural lightweight Kyle Bradley, but the rest of his last seven fights have been losses to Hughes, Serra, Alves, and Josh Koscheck (11-2). Smashing overmatched opponents but losing handily to top-10 opposition will quickly get you matched against mid-level talent with potential.
Enter Paul Taylor (9-3-1) at UFC 89. We mentioned Koscheck as well, and he’s one of the top fighters in the division that has had the misfortune of facing St. Pierre recently enough that he’s not going to be considered for a title shot until he gets a bunch of wins under his belt. Taylor, for his part, is known for putting on exciting fights, so it’s possible that the Lytle-Taylor tilt could be quite the thing to behold. Luckily it’ll be on the main card. On cable. Two fighters that have beaten Taylor, Paul Kelly (7-0) and Marcus Davis (14-4), who are slated to face off at that very same event. Kelly showed potential in his controlling win over Taylor, and Davis is coming off his first loss since 2005 after going on a 11-fight tear, so this is a very interesting match to see where each man is. Davis’s last opponent, Mike Swick (12-2) is still undefeated in the welterweight division and looked much better in his second fight at 170 than his first, so it will be interesting to see whom he’s paired with in his next outing. I still like a Wilson-Swick fight, but I wouldn’t mind seeing “Quick” go at it with Roan Carneiro (12-7) or Ryo Chonan (14-8). Those two will actually be fighting at UFC 88, fulfilling the fight that was slated to go down at UFC 85, where Carneiro was instead shockingly submitted by BJJ purple belt Kevin Burns (7-1).
There are quite a few fighters who have recently debuted in the Octagon with varying degrees of success. We’ve mentioned a few of the winners so far, but Brodie Farber (13-4), James Giboo (11-3), and Steve Bruno (11-4) all came up with the short end of the stick in their respective debuts. Don’t be surprised if two of the three are picked to fight each other in their second UFC bouts. Brad Blackburn (13-9-1) was the one to take out Giboo, and the last (and only) IFL welterweight champion did so in impressive fashion. Blackburn seems to have hit his stride lately, racking up wins against Jay Hieron and Chris Wilson among others in his last six fights. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him get a higher profile opponent in his next match to see if he’s for real. Someone like Akihiro Gono (28-12-7) comes to mind as a possible opponent for Blackburn, but he’ll be facing off against the UFC’s latest British import, Dan Hardy (19-6), at UFC 89. Luigi Fioravanti (13-4), coming off a loss to Diego Sanchez, might be a better option for Blackburn.
The rest of the division ranges from the very promising, such as Dustin Hazelett (11-4), Yoshiyuki Yoshida (10-2) and George Sotiropoulos (9-2) (Hazelett likely being the best of the three) to the pretty good, like Josh Burkman (9-6), glass-chinned and stone-fisted Jonathan Goulet (22-9), Luke Cummo (6-6), and the David Terrell of the welterweight division, Jeff Joslin (5-3), to the largely unproven, like Jason Tan (5-3), Jon Koppenhaver (5-2), whose name I couldn’t remember on the podcast, Tom Speer (9-3), Roman Mitichyan (5-2), and David Bielkheden (12-6). This group will likely yield one or two stars, but I’d be surprised if it’s more than that.
So there you have it. Your UFC welterweight division. Conspicuous in their absence from the paragraphs above are Carlos Condit (23-4) and Jake Shields (21-4-1). Condit at least will likely show his face in the Octagon sooner rather than later, while Shields remains a question mark for the time being. Another mentionable from EliteXC is Nick Diaz (18-7), who despite ProElite’s efforts to the contrary, should not be fighting at 160 pounds. Diaz will likely fight KJ Noons for the 160 lb. belt in EXC, and in the meantime has a possible, on-again-off-again fight with Hayato Sakurai (32-8-2) currently rumored to be taking place at the next Dream event for the vacant 170 lb. title. Other than those four fighters, there aren’t a whole lot of established competitors in the division who are not currently competing under the Zuffa banner. So we do have a treat in having most of the world’s best 170-lb fighters in a position where they can fight each other. That’s one thing we can be thankful for when we remember the dismal state of MMA’s heavyweight division.
Thoughts? Comments? Shoot me an email at ennistorch(at)gmail.com or post your musings in the Forums.
