On the heels of one of the most highly contested and controversial championship fights in UFC history, much speculation remains as to what’s next for champion Georges St-Pierre and Johny Hendricks.
Their five-round war this past Saturday at UFC 167 was truly back and forth, but the majority of the MMA community gave the nod to the challenger. However, two of the three Las Vegas judges scored the fight for GSP, stretching his consecutive title defense streak to nine.
The outcome left much to the imagination as to what Hendricks did wrong to lose a bout he seemingly secured. Either way, the heavy-handed Texan left it in the judges hands and that’s one of the worst things you can do with today’s skewed scoring system.
This was not the first time a UFC title fight produced these types of results. Earlier this year, light heavyweight phenom Jon Jones narrowly escaped a mauling by No. 1 contender Alexander Gustafsson. It was so close and such a surprising performance that every post-fight reaction centered around a potential rematch.
Unfortunately for the Swede, Glover Teixeira was waiting in the wings.
But what made things worse this time around for Hendricks and the millions of fans who went to bed unsatisfied, is the fact that St-Pierre sullied any chance of an immediate rematch when he unexpectedly took time off.
However, in a promotion fueled by the always persuasive Dana White , the pound-for-pound king may not be sidelined for too long.
As a matter of fact, White came to Hendricks rescue at UFC 167’s post-fight press conference and explained how he deserves another shot at the title, while Gustafsson ultimately did not.
“The situation was different with that one because Jon said, ‘I already beat him. Now I want to fight Glover Teixeira,” said White, which was originally reported by MMA Fighting. “He goes, ‘I’ll give him the rematch after.’ Jon had this plan where he wanted to beat another contender and then he’d do the rematch. I respected that.”
“Who’s Georges going to fight?” added White. “He already fought Condit. Johny deserves this rematch. Every fight is different. You can’t look at other situations and go, ‘but in this fight…’ Every fight is different. Johny Hendricks deserves this rematch.”
You can’t blame White for pushing for a rematch between GSP and Hendricks. Not only for the fact that “Bigg Rigg” arguably did enough to capture the title the first time around, but also due to the stacks of cash that would fall from the sky if a second meeting was booked for 2014.
In any case, a rematch obviously hinges on St-Pierre’s return. He must work out his personal problems before running into Hendricks’ left hand for a second-straight time.
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