The UFC’s welterweight division is a mess right now.
Current champion Georges St-Pierre has been so dominant over all of the divisions top contenders that the UFC is having an incredibly hard time finding marketable contenders for him. There are a lot of fighters at welterweight that GSP has not yet faced, the problem is that none of them have looked good enough to make the fans say, “that guy might be able to take St-Pierre out”.
It’s a very hard thing to get fans excited about a title challenger when they’re almost certain he will lose.
Carlos Condit has been working hard lately to prove to the UFC and fans alike that he is ready for Georges.
Condit is riding a three fight win streak, with his most recent win being a first round knock out of Dan Hardy. This is significant because St-Pierre has fought Hardy and defeated him, but was unable to finish the fight.
So, now that Carlos has garnered himself some attention by finishing a man that GSP could not, will a win over Dong Hyun Kim at UFC 132 put Carlos Condit in line for a title shot?
The short answer is, “Yes”.
The long answer is, “Yes, but how long is the line?”.
Welterweight is one of the UFC’s most stacked divisions and with guys like Jon Fitch and BJ Penn at the top of division, it’s hard for a fighter to prove their worthiness. Then there’s other rising contenders like Jake Ellenberger and Rick Story to compete with, plus long time middleweight contender Nate Marquardt making the move into the division.
So, will beating Kim give Carlos the momentum he needs to be all these other competitors out for a title shot.
Probably not.
Kim is 5-0-1 in the UFC and undefeated as a mixed martial artist. However, Dong holds no victories over top competition and his fighting style isn’t particularly appealing to most fans. As a result, he has not earned much attention from the the UFC’s fan base. In fact, most casual fans probably don’t even know who he is.
Dong is a good fighter and Condit will need to bring his A-game to win the fight, but Kim is just not a big enough name to get Carlos the next shot at the gold.
If Condit wins, the only way he is getting the next title shot is if the UFC finds themselves in a bind and has no other choice. Otherwise, Carlos will be one or two victories away from a shot at the belt.
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