Hendricks Will Have To Defeat St-Pierre Twice To Prove Worth

This weekend’s UFC megacard is absolutely stacked, there’s no denying that.

From top to bottom, it’s safe to say UFC 167 – also being marketed as the UFC’s 20th-anniversary blowout show – is one of the very best cards that parent company Zuffa has produced all year long, at least on paper. And much of the excitement is because the headline act is an absolutely phenomenal fight.

In the main event, UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre puts his title on the line for the ninth time since 2008 against perhaps his toughest opponent to date, #1 contender Johny Hendricks. This is a fight that has been brewing for a few years now, and I personally believe that Hendricks, out of all eight of the opponents GSP has defended his title against in the last five years, is his toughest title challenger.

Blessed with a cannon-like left hand and tremendous wrestling credentials, Hendricks has won 10 of 11 fights in the UFC to claim that he is without a doubt the next-best welterweight behind St-Pierre. And this weekend, he has a chance to take the top spot.

Or does he?

In my mind, if Hendricks knocks out St-Pierre he officially takes over the role of #1 welterweight on the planet, and he also takes his place ahead of St-Pierre in the mythical pound-for-pound rankings. But in the minds of many, it will take not one, but two victories over St-Pierre for Hendricks to really prove his worth.

If you don’t believe me, take a look at Chris Weidman. The UFC middleweight champion won the belt from long-time titleholder Anderson Silva at UFC 162 this summer with a big KO win, but for whatever reason he is currently an underdog in the betting odds for the rematch, and he sits behind Silva in the UFC’s official pound-for-pound rankings. For some reason, Silva is No. 4 while Weidman is No. 9.

Why?

In my opinion, rankings should be about who is currently, at the present time, the top fighter in the world in that weight class (or in the case of pound-for-pound, overall). I’m the biggest Silva fan you will meet, but the fact of the matter is he lost via knockout to Weidman, and yet for some reason the fans and media aren’t giving him the benefit of the doubt. They want him to win again this winter and show the first time wasn’t a fluke. And that’s despite Weidman scoring a brutal KO win.

That’s why I think that if Hendricks defeats St-Pierre by early KO, there will be many critics who will try and overlook the loss and defend St-Pierre as still being ahead of Hendricks in the rankings, just because he’s been at the top of the sport longer than his opponent (or, in other words, exactly like Weidman and Silva). If anything, Hendricks needs to beat down St-Pierre over the course of five rounds in order to prove his dominance, because as we have seen in the case of Weidman and Silva, even if you get an early KO over your opponent there will always be doubters.

For his part, Hendricks seems aware of this, and at the UFC 167 pre-fight presser conference he said he’ll give GSP a rematch if he beats him, but to me the rematch is just something the UFC wants to do to make more money. That’s exactly why the UFC is doing Silva vs. Weidman 2 despite the fact there was a dominant performance by one fighter in the first fight – because there is still doubt remaining in the minds of some fans, and the UFC knows they can capitalize financially on having a second fight between them, just like they know would be the case in GSP vs. Hendricks.

That’s why you see UFC president Dana White claim time-and-time again that Silva is still ahead of Weidman pound-for-pound, even though his argument isn’t that it’s because Silva has been winning fights at both 185 and 205 in the UFC, but because he’s been doing it for longer. Personally, though, I say, who cares? Weidman is the better fighter now because he beat Silva by KO and proved it. But the UFC knows it can milk some more money out of the fans by doing it again. And who can blame them for it?

I’m picking Hendricks to defeat St-Pierre at UFC 167 and capture the welterweight championship of the world in dominant fashion. But I know this won’t be the first time these two fight. And Hendricks knows it too.