Well that couldn't have gone much better. We now get to see the "rubber match" between Matt Hughes and Georges St. Pierre. Granted, its for the Interim Welterweight Championship but it is a 5 round affair none the less.
The chain of events began when current champ Matt Serra had to pull out of the scheduled December 29 title fight with Hughes after injuring his back. Now it seems Serra's injury is worse than previously thought and he may be out for 6 months or more. With the 170 lb. division stacked with so much talent and an open spot on the UFC's year ending card, it only made since that GSP and Hughes had their 3rd fight (with both winning one previous bout) and the interim title guarantee's a future bout when the healthy Serra returns. Many fans wanted this match in the 1st place before Serra snuck in and got the upset TKO of GSP in their fight.
Matt Serra got his title shot against GSP by winning the reality show The Ultimate Fighter, a shot many felt was undeserved, but made good on the opportunity by stopping GSP in the 1st round with devastating strikes. Back to the reality show went Serra this time to face rival Matt Hughes for the title upon its ending. Now the injury to the champion forces the consensus top 2 Welterweights in the world together one final time for a title that may be worth more than the one Serra is holding.
After the match and either GSP or Hughes is holding the belt, people are going to begin to call it the real title, and Serra's the fluke one. Mark my words its coming. Eventually, when all the dust is settled and the titles are united into one again it will not matter, but I believe Serra is going to hear many months of being "paper champ" while GSP or Hughes is considered the real champion because of their better records and higher levels of competition (not to mention they didn't win a competition against "comeback" fighters to get the shot).
Oh the Jersey accent is going to get louder, but until then, we have our dream match up between possibly the two best Welterweights of all time! Due to unfortunate circumstances, Matt Serra is going to be eclipsed, even with the "real" title while we crown what most will consider to be, the true Welterweight Champion.
1 comment:
While I don't think Serra is better than either one of these two, you're fucking crazy. You can't be a paper champion if you won the belt by beating the shit out of the then-current champ. People may say Serra's a fluke champion, but they'd be absurd to call him a paper champ. Geez.
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