Eight Ways of Looking at George St. Pierre’s UFC 129 Victory

Filed under: UFCGeorges St. Pierre won the decision over Jake Shields at UFC 129 in Toronto, but he also injured his eye and got showered with boos in his home country. Was it a Pyrrhic victory for the UFC welterweight champ, or just a sign that fans a…

Filed under:

Georges St. Pierre won the decision over Jake Shields at UFC 129 in Toronto, but he also injured his eye and got showered with boos in his home country. Was it a Pyrrhic victory for the UFC welterweight champ, or just a sign that fans are too hard on the dominant St. Pierre? The answer depends on how you look at it.

I. GSP vs. Nick Diaz is now the biggest (only?) welterweight title fight the UFC can make.
It’s not that he’s run out of credible challengers. Carlos Condit, for instance, could still be an interesting challenger. It’s just that, after yet another disappointing decision, convincing fans to pay for the next GSP fight will be a challenge. A superfight with Anderson Silva would probably do it, but that’s a ways off, if it happens at all. The champion-versus-champion nature of a GSP-Diaz is the only thing at 170 pounds that would sufficiently energize the mainstream fan base. With Diaz’s style – not to mention his penchant for crazy talk before, during and after a fight – it’s a fight that practically sells itself.