The recent announcement that Carlos Condit will wait to face Georges St-Pierre at the end of the year raises some interesting questions. The matchup between Nick Diaz and Carlos Condit at UFC 143 was for the UFC interim Welterweight Championship.
The whole point of an interim championship is to make sure that the division in question doesn’t stagnate while the champion is hurt.
That way, things can operate smoothly, and the interim champion can begin defending his belt and contenders can earn title shots and not have to continue to take fights while risking a loss that would plummet them back down the rankings. Then, when the champion is healthy, he can return to face the whoever the interim champion is to unify the title.
This makes Condit‘s decision to wait to face GSP until sometime around November somewhat questionable. November is merely a timetable for GSP‘s return, and it may not be in Condit‘s best interest to sit and wait when nothing is set in stone regarding St-Pierre’s full recovery.
While Jon Fitch’s recent loss did help to shake things up in the division, there are certainly fights out there that Condit could take to keep the division moving along.
It seems as if the UFC and Dana White were almost positive that Nick Diaz would beat Carlos, and that may help to explain why an interim championship was created.
Had Diaz beaten Condit, the UFC could have begun to hype his fight against St-Pierre as a champion vs. champion fight, which would draw even more attention.
However, Condit threw a wrench into the UFC’s plans, and now it seems that the interim title was nothing more than a slick move by the UFC to try and hype a fight that will no longer happen.
The effects have put the division on hold for a fight that won’t garner nearly as much hype.
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