Some of you may have heard of a lil’ MMA fight that’s set to take place next month between the UFC’s interim welterweight champion and some French joker named Georges St. Pierre. GSP has been out of action since successfully defending his belt against Jake Shields in April of 2011 due to multiple knee injuries. Finally, on November 17th, the longtime champ is scheduled to make his return at UFC 154 after undergoing ACL reconstruction surgery and taking the necessary months to recover. In case Carlos Condit is thinking about going after St. Pierre’s newly-recuperated knee, “Rush” has a simple message for his opponent.
“I hope that Condit focuses on targeting my knee. Its not a weak link anymore,” he says in the above UFC video.
“There’s nothing that I can’t do now that I wasn’t able to do. I will leave with the belt.”
St. Pierre goes on to give his usual spiel about his next opponent being the best one he’s ever faced — a practice he’s kept up ever since getting upset by Matt Serra in April 2007 — but he brings up some legit points about Condit. The odds may be against “The Natural Born Killer” when he fights GSP but, as the Canadian says, Condit truly is a versatile fighter capable of coming up with and executing different game plans depending on who he is fighting. (Sound familiar?) It should also be noted that Condit has legit KO power — he stopped Dan Hardy cold, for example, whereas GSP couldn’t finish the Brit over five rounds.
What do you think, nation? Is GSP bluffing or will his knee hold up to any kicking or other attacks that Condit may throw his way? And do you think it makes sense for a fighter to design their game plan around an opponent’s injury?
Bonus fight-hype: This tasty St. Pierre vs. Condit promo reel from jhazizi21.