Former dominant welterweight champion Matt Hughes doesn’t believe his old rival Georges St-Pierre will ever return to the Octagon, and he believes Johny Hendricks plays a big role in that.
Speaking to Sportsnet, transcription via MMA Fighting, the UFC’s Vice President of Athlete Development and Government Relations explained that GSP has nothing more to prove and probably wouldn’t hold up in a rematch with “Bigg Rigg.”
People have been catching Georges a little bit, and I’m talking the past three or four years. People have been catching up to him, to his abilities. He’s at the age where he’s going to start slowing down just a little bit. Georges has made a lot of money. Gosh, what’s he got to prove? What’s he want to do? I wasn’t real surprised. I would probably be a little more surprised if he ever came back. I don’t think he wants to go in there and face Johny Hendricks again … He beat GSP up. In the rounds Georges won, he barely won. So I don’t think he wants to go back in and take another beating like that against Johny Hendricks.
There are some statistics to support Hughes’ theory, as color commentator Joe Rogan noted days after the St-Pierre vs. Hendricks bout that GSP had taken 50 percent of the strikes in his career in his past three fights, per Fighters Only.
Hughes, who retired after a knockout loss to Josh Koscheck in September 2011, has a 1-2 mark against St-Pierre.
The Illinois native won their first encounter at UFC 50 with an armbar but was finished by “Rush” in their subsequent meetings at UFC 65 and UFC 79, respectively.
Hughes was among the many fighters, fans and analysts who felt “Rush” was given a gift decision over Hendricks at UFC 167 in November since the widespread belief was that Hendricks would be crowned the new champion after five rounds.
However, two of the three judges in Las Vegas, Nevada scored the bout in favor of the French-Canadian superstar, so he managed to retain the belt.
Shortly afterwards, GSP relinquished his belt in favor of some time off, recently attributing his recent stresses to obsessive-compulsive disorder, per CBC News.
As St-Pierre enjoys his time on the sidelines, Hendricks gets another crack at the belt when he faces Robbie Lawler in the main event of UFC 171 on March 15.
John Heinis is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA editor for eDraft.com.
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