Georges St. Pierre was recently named the Canadian Athlete of the Year for 2009, which marks his second year in a row winning the title. He beat out Sindey Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins to win it by a vote of 64-36. The award itself is news, but perhaps more interesting is the video of St. Pierre accepting the award.
As I was watching the video, Georges St. Pierre’s increase in muscle and overall size struck me immediately. His arms and chest are bigger. Dave Meltzer spoke with St. Pierre in mid-November, and got the story on St. Pierre’s new size:
He’s up from his usual 187-188 pounds as his walk-around weight to 195-196, and said he’s slowly developing muscle that he will maintain. At the same time, he emphasized that his athletic performance comes second to his health, and despite competing in a dangerous sport, he is not going to take any steps that would hinder his long-term well-being.
The 28-year old St. Pierre said that if he gets up to 200 pounds, he may have to move up a weight class. He’s noted that he goes against middleweights, light heavyweights and heavyweights in training all the time, and does very well against them.
It’s very possible that Georges St. Pierre is going to grow his way out of the welterweight division and into the middleweight division. BJ Penn is still hoping to move to 170 to eventually go after St. Pierre, but he may find that by the time he gets there his white whale has migrated to another body of water.
My guess is both Penn and St. Pierre have two fights left in their current divisions. If they both win out, we could see something unprecedented in the UFC: a simultaneous shift up for two champions. At 170, there are intriguing fights for Penn against Thiago Alves, Jon Fitch, Josh Koscheck, Dan Hardy, Carlos Condit, Anthony Johnson, and many others. At 185, St. Pierre has a plethora of intriguing options, including Anderson Silva, Demian Maia, Vitor Belfort, Wanderlei Silva, Michael Bisping, and maybe even Rich Franklin.
The only roadblock to St. Pierre’s move to 185 is Nate Marquardt. GSP is unwilling to move up and jump ahead of or fight his friend, so he will wait and see how Nate does in his quest for the title. If he loses to Sonnen (unlikely) or Silva (likely), then I think we’ll see St. Pierre take the plunge.
I have mixed feelings about the two moves. On one hand, it will provide a lot more intriguing fights on PPV in late 2010 and into 2011 and 2012. On the other hand, there’s something to be said for long periods of dominant champions. Unfortunately, in a sport where people have to pay $50 to see the important shows, you have to bow to the consumer, and the consumer may not be interested in seeing BJ Penn walk all over the Tyson Griffins of the world.