...OH, ONE MORE THING - PLEASE BOOKMARK US & VISIT DAILY!
By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Though many were expecting the UFC Welterweight Championship bout between Georges St-Pierre and Johny Hendricks to head to Toronto, Ontario, Canada, this September, the UFC apparently has different plans in mind.
UFC President Dana White spoke with Canada's Sportsnet program "UFC Central" on Tuesday, and revealed that the UFC is actually targeting that fight for October instead of September.
That's in line with what White said they'd do with St-Pierre after his win over Nick Diaz in March, which is take him out of Canada for his next fight. The Montreal native has fought four straight times in his home country, and hasn't fought elsewhere since defeating Dan Hardy in New Jersey in March of 2010.
St-Pierre returned from a lengthy layoff due to a knee injury last November, defeating Interim Champion Carlos Condit upon his return. He then made one of his quickest turnarounds in recent memory, defeating Diaz in Montreal in March.
Hendricks enters the event on a six fight winning streak, a span which has included first minute knockout wins over Jon Fitch and Martin Kampmann, along with wins over top ten opponents (at the time) in Josh Koscheck and the aforementioned Condit.
Penick's Analysis: If St-Pierre's really not headlining the September card in Toronto, things could be getting interesting in terms of which fights headline the fall events. There's every possibility that Jon Jones-Alexander Gustafsson takes the top spot in Toronto, though it would mean the third straight time a Toronto card has been topped by Jones. Or the Heavyweight Trilogy fight between Cain Velasquez and Junior dos Santos could take that spot, which would push Jones-Gustafsson back further and throw off the timeline for a Jones-Anderson Silva fight. It's hard to say right now which way things will go, but we should find out soon enough as the UFC will have to begin booking those cards in the next few weeks.
[GSP art by Travis Beaven (c) MMATorch.com]
(Attention MMATorch app users: Make sure to upgrade to the latest edition of the MMATorch app on your iPhone, iPad, or Android device!)
Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
STAFF COLUMNISTS: Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
Interested in joining MMATorch's writing team? Send idea for a theme to your column (for Specialist section) or area of interest (i.e. TV Reporter) along with a sample of writing to mmatorch@gmail.com.
