Everyone that aims to watch UFC 154 will focus on a number of questions.
Will cage rust negatively affect Georges St-Pierre? Will Carlos Condit rise to the occasion in his first UFC title unification fight? Does Anderson Silva‘s presence in Montreal matter on fight night?
Naturally, one question fans avoid when talking about UFC 154 concerns a man on the outside looking in, and that man is Nick Diaz.
Now, depending on your opinion, Diaz either beat Condit or got physically dissected by Condit.
But the fact remains that Condit‘s technical game plan bested Diaz (officially) and it aims for the same result when Condit walks in to Montreal on Saturday to unify the belts against St-Pierre, who went so far as to view himself as the challenger for this title fight with Condit.
So, for those of you wondering about Diaz‘s relevance to this matter, begin considering a Condit victory with me, if you will.
Obviously, the contender pool seems a bit deeper with Condit sporting the strap (as many argue for the welterweight division having grown into quite the shark tank as of recent months), but think about St-Pierre’s options if Condit did win the belt.
Who makes sense for St-Pierre if he leaves UFC 154 with everything, sans his belt?
Josh Koscheck lost two fights to St-Pierre, Dong Hyun Kim wants Demian Maia, Siyar Bahadurzada’s next opponent won’t come to light until the UFC knows his hand has fully healed and anything concerning the winner and loser of UFC 154’s co-headliner of Martin Kampmann-Johny Hendricks will serve as mere speculation until we know how that fight transpires.
Really speaking, the UFC benefits from aiming for Diaz vs. St-Pierre (if St-Pierre loses), what with their noted past, the potential payday that comes from the bout, and St-Pierre giving no indication of even a slight intrigue in the prospect of a superfight with Silva.
Also, the inevitability of Diaz‘s licensing and the short list of sensible opponents for Diaz all but ensures that a Diaz-St-Pierre fight can, and likely will, happen sooner than later.
Of course, nobody ever questioned if Diaz vs. St-Pierre would happen. They only questioned when it would happen.
But now we must question if the UFC still wants this fight to happen sometime in the near future, considering the ever-changing landscape of the welterweight class.
Here’s hoping they do the right thing and strike the iron while it still feels hot.
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