Friday, March 3, 2017

Georges St. Pierre is Underserving of Middleweight Title Shot

It has been recently announced that Georges St. Pierre (GSP)'s first UFC fight after about a two-year layoff will be against Michael Bisping for the middleweight title.  GSP will step over more deserving fighters like Yoel Romero and Ronaldo Souza because the UFC lately runs like the WWE: mainstream popularity matters.  Even though earlier Dana White says the UFC will have to promote GSP all over again because of the fighter's long layoff.  Romero and Souza are not getting the title shot because they are not household names.  It's similar to how John Cena, the Undertaker, and Randy Orton are always vying for the WWE belt when there are other wrestlers just as deserving but not as popular or well known. 
The UFC matchmaking used to be better when mixed martial arts was not as mainstream as it is today.  Now, if fighters know how to talk, they'll have a better chance of earning bigger fights. Everyone has to be good on the microphone like Conor McGregor.  McGregor got the lightweight title fight against Eddie Alvarez last year over someone like Tony Ferguson, who was on a 9-fight winning streak.  Nine wins in a row and still no title shot?  There's a good chance Khabib Nurmagomedov would have been the #1 lightweight contender against McGregor if McGregor didn't decide to take first half of 2017 off.  That's because Khabib threatened to quit the UFC, yet he has not been as active as Ferguson.
Pierre getting the next middleweight title shot is even more perplexing when he has 0 fights in that weight class.  He was afraid to challenge then champion Anderson Silva when there was all this talk of a super fight between the welterweight and middleweight champions.  Majority of fighters want a crack at the middleweight title because they all believe Bisping is an easy matchup.  But regardless of their lack of respect for him, there are more deserving fighters than one who has never fought at that weight class and has been inactive for two years.


Robert Lin enjoys basketball and anime.  Follow him on Twitter and/or Google.

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