UFC welterweight champ Georges St. Pierre is No. 2 in Yahoo! Sports' pound-for-pound rankings. For a man who is driven to be the best, being No. 2 to anyone, even Anderson Silva, is not OK. GSP wants to be the undisputed best mixed martial artist on the planet. He's willing to fight for that title.
And if he wins it, what's next? According to him, retirement.
Still, if St-Pierre takes "a couple" of welterweight fights in the next year or two, and if Silva is still the pound-for-pound king at that point, the French-Canadian then would consider moving up to fight him. And if he defeats Silva, that's a win worthy of retirement, he said.
"If one day I fight at 185 pounds for a superfight to know who is the best pound-for-pound in the world, (and) if I reach my goal, then my goal will be reached," St-Pierre said. "There will be no point for me to still compete because I'm not going to have a goal left."
Josh Koscheck is his next opponent, as the two will fight after the upcoming season of "The Ultimate Fighter" airs. Assuming that he wins that, he will likely face the winner of Thiago Alves and Jon Fitch. GSP has already beaten all three of those fighters.
Assuming that Silva keeps his belt after fighting Chael Sonnen in August and that Silva stays at middleweight, the logical step for both fighters would be to face each other, but with a win over Silva, should a fighter like GSP retire?�
In a word: yes. Between his endorsements, sponsorships and fight purses, GSP has more than enough money to live well. He's a smart, eloquent man who can find plenty of work in commentating and representing MMA in his home country of Canada.
But beyond concerns about GSP's financial security, without a real challenge, why would he keep fighting? He has cleaned out the division. He beat the king of the UFC's welterweight division, Matt Hughes, twice. Both times that he faced B.J. Penn, GSP won. Now, he has to fight welterweights that he has already defeated.
He is young — just 29 years old — but without a real challenger on the horizon, why should he keep fighting? It would be better to see a champion like GSP go out on his own terms than hold on for too long, and get knocked out three times in a row.�
Lily Allen
Nadine Velazquez
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