In his first fight in over four years, Georges St-Pierre won a submission victory over middleweight champ, Michael Bisping. St-Pierre, who left as USADA became the drug testing service for the UFC, can now begin to put steroid talk as his only means of winning behind him. Looking forward, if GSP can back up this result, the middleweight division of the UFC could rise close to the level it was at while Anderson Silva was top dog.
The Breakdown
Michael Bisping is no slouch, though he does have some questionable wins to his record. Among those wins are fights in which opponents could no longer continue after an illegal strike or controversial decisions against legends Anderson Silva and Dan Henderson. That being said, Bisping is still one of the harder fights in the middleweight division. Adding to his tough reputation, he’s filling in for a fight just weeks after his submission loss to GSP. In terms of rankings, if Bisping comes out on top in his fight against Kelvin Gastelum, he shouldn’t fall outside the top three in the division.
Georges St-Pierre did take his share of hits in his first fight back from a four year hiatus. He also delivered hits and ultimately took Bisping’s back for a rear-naked choke win. GSP boasts a career 73% strike defense rate and an even higher 84% take-down defense rate. He manages this while maintaining 53% success in striking and 73% success in taking his opponent down. It’s safe to say that GSP is back; and likely to the chagrin of detractors, he came back while passing USADA anti-doping testing.
Division on Notice
GSP has put the middleweight division back on notice. This is exactly what the division needed after the rotating door run of champions from Weidman to Bisping. If GSP can defend his title, which seems a very likely possibility to me, he’ll hold his belt until he wants to hang up the gloves for good. Middleweights around the world beware: you are in GSP’s division now, enjoy your stay.