With a couple of weeks to go until the next big event (UFC 83 Serra-St.Pierre), and not much else going on in the world of MMA, this would be as good a time as any to give my thoughts on the Welterweight division. Even though Matt Serra is the champ, most believe the man on top is George St.Pierre, followed by everyone else. Let’s face it; the only knock on GSP is that he hasn’t always been mentally prepared. On April 19th in Montreal, Canada St.Pierre will have to show his mental toughness. There will be more pressure on him than ever before. He’ll have to win back his championship belt and prove his earlier loss to Serra was a fluke, all in front of his home crowd. Serra doesn’t seem to get rattled easily (maybe it’s that New York attitude), so the boo’s he will hear from the Canadian fans should only fire him up more. I’ve read on many MMA sites Serra doesn’t stand a chance; I don’t see it that way. The only thing Serra has to lose is a title not many think he deserves anyway. He should be relaxed and able to stick to a game plan. Whereas, St.Pierre may feel it necessary to put on a good show for his fans, or be too cautious trying not to lose instead of going all out for the win. All I’m saying is for every great fighter (which GSP is) there’s always that guy who is stylistically a bad match for you. Serra may be just that!
The rest of this division is pretty deep in talent, but on any given night anyone could beat anyone. The following are who I believe are the top contenders. Jon Fitch should absolutely get a title shot his next fight, he’s undefeated in the UFC with wins over Thiago Alves, Diego Sanchez, Josh Burkman and many others. Do I think he could beat St.Pierre? NO. Serra? Possibly. Remember what we hear all the time “style’s make fights”.
Every time Karo Parisyan gets on track for a shot at the title something happens to derail him. This time it was a knee to the jaw by Thiago Alves. Speaking of Alves, he is right on the doorstep having just beat Parisyan, he hasn’t lost since his 6/28/06 loss to Fitch. I would like to see an Alves- Josh Koscheck bout before either gets to face whomever the champ will be. That still leaves us with Sanchez, Burkman, Chris Lytle and we can’t forget about Matt Hughes. I don’t think Fitch could wait another 3-4 months for the winner of Serra-GSP. He’ll need to fight before that. My prediction is we’ll see a Fitch-Hughes fight added to a card in the next couple of months. Although Hughes may simply want to wait and be ready for his inevitable fight with Serra. Either way, because most of these guy’s are still so young, we’ll have some great match-ups in this weight class for years to come.
