Three-plus years.
That’s how long the UFC’s welterweight division has been on lock-down, and how long champion Georges St. Pierre has walked into the octagon a champion and walked out a pound-for-pound kingpin.
It is also how long dominance and superior skill have seemingly sapped the life-blood right out of the UFC’s welterweight division. How long it’s been since someone has had more than a puncher’s chance to take the title away.
Three-plus years.
But, alas, the times they are a changing. Lost is the unbeatable and almighty aura that is Georges St. Pierre, who sat on the sidelines with a torn ACL, looking on helplessly as Carlos Condit won a title St. Pierre never lost. Gained—an injection of youth, trash-talking, up-and-comers and excitement that hasn’t been around since St. Pierre reclaimed his crown in 2008.