We haven’t seen Georges St. Pierre fight since UFC 129 which took place April 30th 2011. St. Pierre later tore his ACL during training and need surgery to repair it, keeping him out of action since last year.
Now fans have a reason to cheer as the dominant welterweight champion will make his return to the octagon at UFC 154 in Montreal.
Standing across from him will be the ever dangerous Carlos Condit, who defeated Nick Diaz to win the interim welterweight championship. It is a great return of a champion, however there are many questions of how he will perform coming off such a debilitating injury.
St. Pierre has to answer many questions in his return fight. How will his knee hold up during the fight? Will the knee surgery take away the explosiveness he’s had in previous fights? Will ring rust play a factor, seeing as he hasn’t fought since last year? How will he fair against a dangerous well-rounded opponent in Carlos Condit?
I think St. Pierre’s knee will hold up just fine in this fight. He’s always working to be one of the best conditioned athletes so I assume his rehab and training were done at the highest level––his knee will hold up fine.
Another matter is the explosiveness and ring rust. The way St. Pierre trains he should retain the explosive power he had pre-surgery, but I think it will be a bit more measured until he’s had it properly tested by his opponent.
Concerning rustiness, I think that St. Pierre will not have to deal with much of that. He is a true veteran of the sport and I truly believe ring rust will not affect him.
The final question is how will he fair against Carlos Condit? Condit is dangerous wherever the fight goes.
We need to see St. Pierre come out strong and attempt to finish Condit. Condit has all the tools to dethrone St. Pierre but I believe we will see a GSP with a chip in his shoulder. He will control Condit and attempt to finish the fight when he is presented with an opportunity.
We are going to see a GSP with a different mindset in this fight. He is going to take more risks and attempt to finish the fight and silence his doubters. I for one can’t wait to see a dangerous and motivated GSP fight again at UFC 154.
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