For the first time since 2007, a different welterweight will be wearing UFC gold.
Georges St-Pierre will be on the shelf for a considerable amount of time due to ACL surgery and the UFC has decided to make a match between Nick Diaz and Carlos Condit for the interim title.
GSP is one of the best pound-for-pound fighters in history, there’s no denying that. But considering GSP was scheduled to face his most credible challenger in a long time in Diaz, the lack of the fight materializing twice will always be a knock on him.
No matter how true or untrue the idea is, GSP isn’t fighting his toughest challenge in years.
The anti-GSP crowd just acquired more ammo in their crusade against the former champion. His knee injury coupled with the ACL tear has put the fighter on the shelf for the foreseeable future.
A fighter is judged not only on wins and losses, the name for those wins and losses matters as well.
With GSP “avoiding” a fight with Diaz, GSP’s detractors will claim the French Canadian is avoiding his toughest challenge in years.
GSP already has been criticized for fighting safe in his title defenses, the backlash from not fighting Diaz will lower his ranking on P4P lists of many fans.
The UFC also isn’t happy that GSP isn’t fighting given the fact he’s their top draw and a match against Diaz would’ve made a lot of money for the company.
When GSP does recover from his injury, he will likely be rushed back to appearing on a card before he’s ready. We’ve seen in other sports how athletes take over a full calendar year to recover from ACL surgery and the UFC won’t want to wait that long to get their top moneymaker back.
Besides not fighting Diaz now, when St-Pierre is rushed back from his injury, there’s a possibility he may not be the same fighter that we’ve seen.
That would definitely hamper his legacy if he were to lose due to the injury.
It’s not like he has a lot of fan support now given the way he fights. If he were a more popular fighter, he’d likely be given a pass for the injuries and not fighting Diaz.
Injuries aren’t predictable and it’s not his fault at all for getting injured so we shouldn’t blame him but fans will forever be on his case.
Whether it’s fair or not, GSP has nobody to blame but himself for the lack of popularity fans and their unwillingness to give him a pass.
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