As you have probably heard, Georges St-Pierre is taking an indefinite leave of absence from the UFC. While it’s undeniably a sad day for the UFC, the show must inevitably go on.
The welterweight division will continue chugging without its long-time champion, but the door is now open for an exciting rush to fill the void left by GSP.
The next step has already been made. The UFC has booked Johny Hendricks to face off with Robbie Lawler at UFC 171. The bout will determine the next welterweight champion.
After that, there is no shortage of exciting potential contenders.
Tarec Saffiedine has a legitimate claim for a shot at the belt. As the final Strikeforce champion, a case could be made that the Belgian striker should have fought for the belt already. Injuries, however, have pushed back his UFC debut on numerous occasions. He is set to face Hyun-Gyu Lim at UFC Fight Night 34 and, if he beats the Korean in convincing fashion, may be one fight away from top contendership or less.
Dong-Hyun Kim has been absolutely dominant of late. He scored back-to-back brutally lopsided decisions over Paulo Thiago and Siyar Bahadurzada, and most recently scored an impressive one-punch knockout of Erick Silva. He owns an impressive 9-2 (1) record in the UFC, with one of those losses coming from a fluke injury during a fight with Demian Maia.
Matt Brown was making a serious climb towards title contention but missed out on the chance to face Carlos Condit at UFC on Fox 9. Still, the TUF7 alum has the skills and winning streak to challenge for a belt right now.
In addition to those relative newcomers, numerous established veterans such as Nick Diaz, Condit and Jake Shields lie a fight or two away from re-reaching top-contender status. Looking further ahead, there are numerous newcomers that could be potential champions working their way up such as Gunnar Nelson, Tyron Woodley and Hyun-Gyu Lim.
All that is to demonstrate one point: the loss of Georges St-Pierre does very little to hinder the depth of the welterweight division. The real questions lie outside the actual fighters, and instead enters the offices of matchmaker Joe Silva and President Dana White.
It’s no secret the UFC actively downplays the relevance of the bantamweight and flyweight divisions while puffing up the importance of heavyweight and light heavyweight fights.
For example, UFC Fight Night 33’s Soa Palelei vs. Pat Barry, a bout between two heavyweights that were struggling in the Octagon, was booked near the top of the main card, and was promoted heavily entering fight night. Meanwhile, a fight between legitimate top-10 flyweights in Jussier Formiga vs. Chris Cariaso was buried on the Facebook portion of the downright crappy UFC on FX 8: Belfort vs. Rockhold card.
The welterweight division, traditionally, has been closer to heavyweight than flyweight in terms of how the UFC books them. Various 170-pound fighters have consistently benefited from this. Jake Ellenberger is a top-10 welterweight who has had the spotlight on him throughout his career. Rory MacDonald and Paul Daley have been in similar situations.
The reason, of course, is to build up potential fights with the top-drawing champion, Georges St-Pierre.
That strategy is why even the woefully lopsided Georges St-Pierre vs. Dan Hardy drew 770,000 buys. It’s why Dana White closed his eyes, put his fingers in his ears and shouted that St-Pierre would fight his teammate and friend MacDonald at anyone who would listen in spite of protestations from both parties.
It’s why every single 170-pound fighter in the UFC should be biting their finger nails right now.
If a Georges St-Pierre-free welterweight division proves to be a dud on the balance sheets, welterweights getting built up on the main stage will become a thing of the past.
While it’s almost certain that the UFC won’t be able to make up for the loss of revenue when it comes to GSP’s departure, business will continue as usual, but not necessarily with the established status quo. If Chris Weidman successfully defends his belt from Anderson Silva and becomes a greater pay-per-view draw than the winner of Hendricks vs. Lawler, the middleweight division will likely get more prominent booking in the future. The same situation applies to the flyweight and women’s bantamweight divisions respectively if fans warm up to Demetrious Johnson or if Ronda Rousey ends up MMA‘s biggest draw.
That isn’t necessarily a bad thing, mind you. It is, however, the biggest change that will occur in St-Pierre’s absence.
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