FACEBOOK TWITTER RSS APP PODCAST Opinion & Analysis : Amadi's Take AMADI: Georges St. Pierre's UFC 111 win highlights need for UFC's dominant Champions to move up in weight

Mar 29, 2010 - 10:51:54 AM

By: Jason Amadi, MMATorch Columnist

Over the last year or so, but especially highlighted by Georges St. Pierre’s performance last against Dan Hardy, it has become more and more evident that the UFC has a very serious problem. If you look at three of the five current UFC Champions, it is hard to really muster up much interest in seeing them fight any longer.

Their dominance in their respective weight classes are unrivaled by any of their Championship predecessors. There is no doubt in anyone's mind that B.J. Penn, Georges St. Pierre, and Anderson Silva are the greatest fighters in the history of their weight classes. That fact has been clear for some time; and in the case of all three, every interesting challenger has been vanquished, and it's been that way for some time.

It's been a little under three years since B.J. Penn returned to the UFC's lightweight division, and this has been an absolute reign of terror. First, he absolutely smashed the only man to ever defeat him at 155, in Jens Pulver. Then Penn saw fit to claim the division's vacant championship by brutalizing Joe Stevenson, and bestowing upon the Satoru Kitaoka lookalike the proverbial crimson mask.

After that mugging, he finished former champion Sean Sherk, dominated top contender Kenny Florian, and then temporarily succeeded in giving Diego Sanchez a third eyebrow. No disrespect to Frankie Edgar, but that pretty much empties the division of all its dynamic fighters. Should Penn defeat Edgar, and should he stay at 155 lbs., he has nothing to look forward to but a series of wrestlers with inferior boxing who will be unable to take him down, like Gray Maynard and Tyson Griffin.

There is no real interest in seeing this continue. With his new dedication to strength and conditioning, he could really gain size the right way and return to the weight class that he first earned gold in the 170 lb. category. Hopefully he won't be meeting his old nemesis Georges St. Pierre, though.

After last night’s performance, there will certainly be no interest in seeing Georges St. Pierre fight at welterweight anymore. There can’t be. On his road to his current reign as champion St. Pierre dominated Matt Hughes twice, dominated Josh Koscheck, dominated Karo Parisyan, dominated Matt Serra, dominated BJ Penn and really just demolished his weight class.

As champion GSP has dominated top challengers who have dominated the rest of the division. He outclassed Jon Fitch, B.J. Penn again and then Thiago Alves. Now St. Pierre is taking on guys who haven’t really earned title shots and don’t really have any chance to beat him, and only because they are the only ones left.

Fitch was battered by GSP in their first encounter and it wasn’t even close. Koscheck got outwrestled by GSP, and that is his strongest point as a fighter. Paul Daley is a vicious striker with one shot KO power, and doesn’t present a new danger to GSP, but he may not get by Koscheck; and if he does, there is no chance that GSP will stand with him and give him a chance to catch him with his strikes, and even less of a chance that Daley will have a say in the matter.

The UFC could bring in Jake Shields after his middleweight clash with Dan Henderson, but he probably will be suffering from a medical suspension after the expected KO from Hendo. Shields is such a dominant welterweight he is already doing what GSP has been begged to do, and that is move up to middleweight.

Georges St. Pierre is done at welterweight, and everyone, except GSP and Dana White, want to see him take on UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva. All other fights are just a formality at this point. Quite frankly, if Matt Serra didn’t humanize him with what amounts to a fluke victory of St. Pierre, I doubt there would be any question as to where GSP would belong right now.

The 185 lb. division is littered with bigger grapplers than St. Pierre, and seasoned jiu jitsu black belts who’s guard St. Pierre would likely be less inclined to dive into. With all of the talk of GSP being an Olympic caliber wrestler, I’d love to see what St. Pierre would get done against the real thing. Someone like Chael Sonnen would be the perfect test for St. Pierre at 185 lbs., if he chooses to dip his feet in the division before diving in against middle weight shark, Anderson Silva.

At 185 lbs. Anderson Silva is king. He is the longest reigning Champion in the UFC, has the record for most consecutive title defenses, most consecutive victories in the UFC, and is widely considered to be the pound for pound best fighter in the world. Anderson Silva wants to move up to 205 lbs. and has talked about that openly. His two ventures outside at that weight have been more destructive than the ones in his natural weight class.

At 185 lbs., before Dan Henderson exited the UFC, and before Chael Sonnen destroyed Nate Marquardt, Silva was staring down rematches much like St. Pierre is now. But because of those incidents, contenders like Demian Maia and Sonnen have emerged, as well as Vitor Belfort.

However, Anderson has solved a puzzle like Demian Maia before and has already solved the wrestler puzzle that Chael Sonnen provides. Maia, a one dimensional grappler has virtually no chance to defeat Silva if he is unable to get the fight to the ground, and even then Silva isn’t completely out of his element off his back. The Thales Leites fight is proof that Anderson is prepared not to expose himself to the takedown if Maia is unwilling to risk his safety for it. That doesn’t bode well for Maia’s chances in that fight, and neither does the quick KO that he suffered at the hands of Nate Marquardt.

Speaking of Marquardt, Sonnen battered him completely, which may lead fans to believe that he is this new force, but a quick glance over Sonnen’s record reveals that once he puts you on your back, he’s very very susceptible to submissions. Jeremy Horn, Renato Sobral, Paulo Filho, and Demian Maia all submitted him very quickly.

Anderson Silva is a dangerous jiu jitsu black belt off of his back, and if that intimidates Sonnen, it’s likely he would get lit up on his feet as well. Aside from Vitor Belfort, there isn’t a lot of exciting match ups for Anderson at the 185 lb. weight class, and he’s usually excited by the idea of moving up a weight class. If Shogun is able to defeat Machida in May (some say again), then Anderson might be more receptive to the idea of conquering the 205 lb division as well.

Heavyweight and light heavyweight are money divisions for the UFC right now. They are wide open divisions with exciting fights on the cusp. You really can’t even watch fights between potential contenders anymore without noticing the glass ceiling that all lightweights, welterweights, and middleweights are plagued with. Perhaps a move up for three of the pound for pound kingpins is now in order for them to continue challenging themselves.

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