Three Reasons to Stay: Why GSP Should Not Fight Anderson Silva
After Anderson Silva's demolition of Yushin Okami at UFC 134, the MMA community is left wondering who in the middleweight division can offer any real challenge to the pound for pound great. Matchups with Chael Sonnen, Dan Henderson and Brian Stann have all been proposed. While all of these fighters pose certain problems for Silva and would make for interesting fights, many believe that a potential matchup with welterweight champion Georges St.Pierre would be even more intriguing, as both fighters have been jockeying for the position of number one pound for pound fighter over the past couple of years. A matchup between them would finally settle that debate.
The dream fight between the two champions has been discussed before. When asked about the matchup, St.Pierre has said that he would need time to put on the necessary muscle to move up in weight so that he would not be undersized. Once the weight is on, St.Pierre insists, it will be very difficult to take off. For that reason, if he were to move to middleweight for a fight against Silva, he would not be moving back to welterweight afterwards.
Most fans would not have an issue with St.Pierre making a permanent move to middleweight, as it is often said that GSP, much like Silva, has "cleaned out" his division-with the exception of Nick Diaz of course. However, while the welterweight division seems to lack credible contenders to challenge St.Pierre at the moment, hungry young prospects have already begun to show their potential and will soon acquire the experience and discipline necessary to step up and challenge the champion. For this reason, I propose that St.Pierre remain at welterweight and await the challenge from these young prospects. Below I present a brief discussion of three fighters, all under the age of 25, who I believe will be contenders within the next two years.
The first man, one that has been getting more and more attention lately, is 22 year old Rory Macdonald. There are many similarities between Macdonald and St.Pierre. Both entered the UFC as highly touted Canadian fighters with no experience fighting outside of their home country. The terms used to describe Rory at present are remarkably similar to those used to describe St.Pierre before he became champion. Macdonald is often called the "future of MMA," "the new generation," and there is frequent reference to his unlimited potential. Joe Rogan has even said that Macdonald may have even more potential than GSP. That is a huge statement coming from such a well respect MMA authority. Another similarity between the two is that they both lost to veteran fighters early in their UFC careers; St.Pierre was submitted by former welterweight champion Matt Hughes with only one second left in round one of their first fight, while Macdonald was TKOed by Carlos Condit with seven seconds left in the entire fight. Up until the end of both bouts, the Canadians had been winning on the judges cards. These loses can be chalked up to inexperience more than a lack of skill, and they both learned from the loses and came back stronger in their next fights.
So what makes Macdonald so special? Well, aside from relative inexperience, he simply has no obvious weak points. Most MMA fighters in the past began training in a single discipline before cross training in other arts. Rory, however, began training in Mixed Martial Arts on day one; that is, he practiced ever discipline from the beginning, and it shows. His standup is solid, his jiu jitsu is technical and efficient, and his wrestling and ground and pound are strong and effective. He does not throw any looping punches, he keeps his hands high, and he throws good combinations; he passes his opponent's guard with easy and is a constant threat with submissions, and will even pull off the occasional x-guard sweep; his takedowns are often spectacular and awe inspiring (see the Nate Diaz fight if you don't believe me); and his punches from top position are accurate and powerful.
With all that being said, I do not believe that Rory is ready to take on the champion. While he does not have any obvious holes in his game, his skills are not yet at the level of GSP, especially in the area of wrestling. Rory has been put on his back in his fights against Mike Pyle and Carlos Condit and was controlled and beaten up from the top position by the latter. Because St.Pierre specializes-as of late, at least-in taking his opponents down, controlling them, and either blasting them with punches or hunting for a submission, that matchup would not go the way of Rory at this point. However, with a little more experience in the cage and some more time committed to defensive wrestling, Macdonald could very well be the man to beat St.Pierre.
The second man I have in mind is less known than Macdonald, as he has only had one UFC fight and has fought mainly in his home country of Germany. Pascal "Panzer" Krauss (even his name sounds scary) is undefeated in ten fights, and has finished nine of those ten within the first two rounds. According to Krauss's website, he started training in boxing at a young age before he discovered grappling, which he has taken to very well as seven of his victories have come by submission.
Krauss puts constant pressure on his opponents, never letting them rest. His boxing base is evident in his fights. Instead of moving forward like a berserker, he uses good footwork and head movement as he closes in and unleashes on his adversaries. He compliments his boxing combinations with hard low kicks, which have won him fights in the past, as when he chopped down Gokem Dali during a Shooto event in Switzerland. He also makes good use of the Thai clinch to inflict damage with strong knee attacks. When the fight hits the ground, Krauss keeps the pressure on with endless punches and submission attacks.
While Krauss is an excellent offensive boxer, he seems a little lost when the tables get turned and the pressure is put on him. He tends to back up in a straight line with his chin in the air. If Krauss continues to fight in this manner, GSP will have him on his heels with his piston of a jab and run Krauss into the cage. There he can tee-off on him or shoot for a takedown off the fence, much the same as he did against Jon Fitch. Krauss needs to remedy this problem before he can pose a real threat to St.Pierre. Once he does, and after he gets a few more fights under his belt, it is conceivable that Krauss could be the man to end GSP's reign at the top of the division.
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The final fighter I will discuss is not even in the UFC at the moment, but I am confident that some day very soon he will be. This man, who holds an undefeated 8-0 record with as many stoppages stoppages, is not only a MMA phenom but has proved to be a sensation in the grappling world. Gunnar Nelson of Iceland received his black belt in Brazilian jiu jitsu from the legendary Renzo Gracie after only four years of training. As a brown belt he took second at the Mundials, the most prestigious BJJ tournament in the world, and a gold at the BJJ Pan-Ams. He later took gold in the black belt no-gi Pan-Ams and had an amazing run at the Abu Dhabi Submission Wrestling tournament(ADCC), defeating the much more experienced David Avellan and Jeff Monson in the absolute division to take 4th place. So to say Nelson is good at jiu jitsu would be an understatement.
The funny thing about Nelson is that while he seems to prefer jiu jitsu to standing when fighting MMA, he actually began his martial arts career studying Goju-Ryu karate, a traditional Okinawan style similar to Shotokan. His karate background is evident in his MMA bouts. Nelson takes a wide stance and holds his hands low and away from his body. It is impossible to watch Nelson's standup style and not draw parallels to former UFC light-heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida, whose style is very similar. The biggest difference between them is that Machida is a good BJJ black belt who prefers to use his superb karate skills, while Nelson is a good karate black belt who prefers to use his superb BJJ skills.
We know that GSP can defeat high level BJJ black belts without much trouble, as he did in his last bout with Jake Shields. But Nelson is a different animal altogether. Jake was never able to bring St.Pierre to the ground for any amount of time and he was outmatched on his feet. Nelson might prove to be harder to handle on the feet than Shields. He is difficult to hit and will leap forward with reckless abandon, throwing several hard strikes mainly for the purpose of achieving a clinch and to get his grappling underway. While GSP would likely prepare an effective gameplan for Nelson, it would be a very interesting matchup, especially once Nelson further refines his skills with a few more MMA matches. In the meantime, Gunner plans to continue to develop his grappling and will compete at this month's ADCC in London, England.
For now, George St.Pierre sits comfortably atop the UFC welterweight division. There are few, if any, credible challengers currently on the UFC roster. Nick Diaz does pose a great threat to the champ, but if St.Pierre gets past him fans should not push the champion to make that permanent move to 185 lbs. While a bout with Anderson Silva would be a great historical matchup, it would be wrong for St.Pierre to make the move north to middleweight, as there are many hungry young challengers who will be at St.Pierre's doorstep before long, demanding their shot at the title. All we have to do, for now, is wait and watch as those young prospects develop into true contenders.
By Matt King
ProFighting-fans.com MMA Staff Writer