UFC 158: 5 Reasons Nick Diaz Beating St-Pierre Would Be Good For MMA

By Gadiel Hernandez /

The decision by UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre to fight who he believes to be #1 contender Nick Diaz has been a controversial one. With some fans arguing Johnny Hendricks deserves Nick Diaz's place and others calling for a super fight with middleweight champion and pound for pound kingpin Anderson Silva. However the UFC has showed us that sometimes your mouth gets you places faster than your fists. And Georges doesn't feel the time is right to fight Anderson. So instead we'll get the highly anticipated, on and off and on again and off again and now on hopefully for good fight between Marijuana activists' fan favorite Nick Diaz and long time champ Georges St-Pierre. Come UFC 158 two things can happen. St-Pierre will use his smart game planning to mix up his striking, foot work and wrestling to win a dominating decision or Diaz will somehow find a way to finish GSP with strong boxing or use of his ever dangerous submission game. I'm here to tell you why in my opinion the latter is all around better for the sport.

5. An Epic Rivalry

It's been a while since we've seen Georges in a rivalry. Not since the days of Penn, Serra and Hughes. Although he fought Josh Koscheck twice and did a season of TUF with him not so long ago, both fights were one sided beatings and only took place because of lack of competition. The most damage Koscheck did to the champ were a couple of pranks and a lot of disrespecting both outside the octagon. It's been smooth sailing for rush since his vengeful victory over Matt Serra some five years ago to regain his belt. Now stop me if you've heard this before. Trash talking contender challenges dominating champion, does most of what he said he'd do and makes a huge statement. The result? The biggest fight of 2012 and a rivalry worth remembering. With a Nick Diaz victory this could possibly become welterweight's Silva vs. Sonnen. And open up chances for the fighter in reason number four.