cantstoplearning : I think St. Pierre is a sizeable favorite to retain his world title Saturday. I don’t think people appreciate fighters like Georges St. Pierre and Anderson Silva because their skills are to such a standard that it really makes it difficult for anyone who opposes either of them to compete at or near their level in terms of skills.
Roy Jones had the same problem in Boxing for more than a decade when he was in his prime...
It didn’t matter who Jones was in the ring with, Jones’ skills were impeccable where the only question running through observers minds were whether Jones would win by knockout or box his way to a unanimous decision which was often a far gone conclusion after four rounds if it got that far.
Jones’ domination of weight divisions with relative ease left a bad taste in a lot of fans’ mouth because he was so good that he made other world champions and top contenders look amateurish. This fueled the argument of naysayers of “When will Jones fight a legitimate threat?†rather than giving him credit he rightfully deserved as a master of the sweet science.
In regard to St. Pierre there is the danger of having a repeat of sorts because if memory serves me he lost the Welterweight title in his hometown to Matt Serra a couple of years back. There is always a danger when a fighter fights in his hometown that there will be considerably more demands in terms of publicity appearances and requests for tickets and all sorts of other distractions that might arise that may dilute his focus from the fight.
I also give an edge to Mac Danzig over Joe Stevenson. Stevenson seems to have slipped in recent bouts so it will be interesting to see what he can do in this fight.
In regard to the St. Pierre-Koscheck rematch… I as I said give the edge to the champion and think that he certainly has the upper hand in regard to wrestling though Koscheck is also a highly accomplished wrestler. I think in order to win this fight Josh Koscheck needs to force the fight to be a striking battle because Koscheck has proved in recent fights he has the power to knock fighters out and St. Pierre even as accomplished as he is has been caught before and I don’t believe he takes a good punch so that could work to his advantage.