With St-Pierre Out and Whittaker In, The UFC Middleweight Division Is Much Better Off

By
Jared Jones
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Perhaps the middleweight division is better off without GSP.

From the moment that Michael Bisping vs. Georges St-Pierre was first announced, you could almost feel the gap between MMA hardcores and casual fans begin to fracture even further. Whether or not the former welterweight champion had hand-picked Bisping as the only beatable option for his return wasn’t really the issue dividing the two groups(he had, and everyone including Bisping knew it), but the timing of the entire affair certainly was.

By the time the UFC was trotting out both fighters for one of the more bizarre press conferences in the promotion’s history, “The Count” had been holding onto the middleweight title for nearly a year —  272 days, to be precise. In that time period, he had defended it once in a “grudge match” against Dan Henderson in October of 2016 and spent the entirety of 2017 on the mend from a knee surgery. Worse yet, the UFC’s plans to have the fight headline one of its tentpole summer events were quickly dashed by St-Pierre’s revelation that he wouldn’t be ready to go until October at the earliest, meaning that fans would have to wait another 6 months to see something they only kind of wanted to see in the first place.

Like many fans, Bisping was understandably frustrated by this development (even laughably threatening to renege St-Pierre’s shot at one point), but even more understandably willing to delay defending the title against one of the division’s more worthy (re: dangerous) contenders in favor of the massive payday that he had been chasing his entire career. And so, the middleweight title — and in essence, the division in general — was forced into a holding pattern until November.

Of course, we all know how things went from there: St-Pierre made his triumphant return at UFC 217, captured the title in an absolute barnburner of a fight, and then promptly faded back into the ether as if he had never returned in the first place.

Looking back at on it now, it would be hard to argue that St-Pierre’s con job didn’t work… if only in the short term. UFC 217 was a massive success both critically and commercially, and St-Pierre got to bookend his career with one of his most impressive (if sort of meaningless) victories to date. Hell, even Dana White apparently knew that “Rush” was planning to get out of Dodge as soon as he cashed in his chips, so why then were so many fans calling for his head when he did exactly that?

It comes down to the difference between tension and meta-tension, really. While there was certainly a ton of press devoted to how St-Pierre would perform after a 4 year absence from the sport, you could argue that just as much of it wasn’t related to the fight itself, but the wider implications it would have on one of the UFC’s most backlogged divisions. Like the much talked-about midseason finale of The Walking Dead, St-Pierre vs. Bisping presented a scenario in which fans were left wondering how the people running the show would pick themselves out the hole that they had dug, rather than focusing on the stakes of the show itself. It’s a small distinction, granted, but also one that serves as a microcosm of the gap that exists between casual MMA fans and hardcores.

But now, thanks to the promotion of interim champ Robert Whittaker to undisputed status, one of the UFC’s longest suffering divisions feels fresh for the first time since Bisping shocked the world at UFC 199. Gone are the days of the injury-plagued Weidman era, the title-clinging Bisping era, and the brief but fiercely controversial GSP era. In Whittaker, the UFC has a young, extremely talented champion who seems ready to actually defend the damn title instead of chasing after money fights from Day 1. A champion that looks to establish himself against one of the most talented fighters to ever step foot in the cage in his very first defense.

He may not be able to move tickets like a GSP or even a Bisping, but there’s something infinitely more exciting about the idea of seeing a division flourish for the first time in years under Whittaker’s reign. In a sport that has seen some of its biggest names either vacate their belts, be stripped of them, or simply put off defending them altogether, a little consistency can go a long way. Just ask Whittaker, who spoke with MMAJunkie about St-Pierre’s decision to vacate the belt earlier today.

“I’m just happy to know Georges has stepped down, I’ve taken the title, and I’m going to defend it come February against Luke. So yeah, it’s just good to know what we’re doing. I’m a very objective-drive bloke, so to have a goal in mind and to have something to do is very important to me.”

Same here, Robert. Same here.

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Jared Jones is a writer, musician, and filmmaker currently residing in Boston, MA. Angry comments can be directed to his Twitter and/or Facebook pages. 

Jared Jones
Jared Jones

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