Welterweight contenders set to battle at UFC 171
by Ben Heather @benheather
On Friday it was announced that Georges St-Pierre has taken a break from MMA and in doing so has relinquished his UFC Welterweight title. This was confirmation of GSP's UFC 167 post fight interview in which he said he may need to take some time off but wasn't prepared to commit to that decision on the night.
This chain of events led to a couple of other fights being announced, the first was for the now vacant UFC Welterweight title between Johny Hendricks and Robbie Lawler. Dana White also mentioned that Carlos Condit would also be fighting at UFC 171 but at the time no opponent had been announced. He said that at the UFC on FOX 9 post fight press conference he would announce Condit's opponent. At that press conference Dana White announced that he had attempted to arrange the rematch between Condit and Nick Diaz but Diaz turned the fight down saying he was still retired. So until now the world was left waiting to hear who would fight Condit.
Today it was announced that Tyron Woodley, who has been sending Dana about 15 text messages a day trying to get a big name fight would be the man to face Condit with the winner more than likely becoming the new number one contender for the UFC Welterweight title.
Woodley has had a mixed run going 2-1 since joining the UFC from Strikeforce, that being said in the two fights he has won he has put on brilliant performances knocking out Jay Hieron and most recently Josh Koshcheck. That fight with Koscheck was a brutal battle in which he rocked Koscheck a few times before putting him away towards the end of the first round. His only loss since joining the UFC was against Jake Shields at UFC 161 where he lost via split decision.
Condit got back to winning ways last time out against Martin Kampmann, that win was his first win for three fights having lost back to back unanimous decisions firstly in the Welterweight title unification battle with GSP and then against Johny Hendricks. He was due to fight Matt Brown in what would have been a great fight last weekend at UFC on FOX 9 but Brown had to pull out of that fight injured and will not be back in time to be fit for UFC 171.
A win against Tyron Woodley would be enough to potentially set up a rematch for Condit against Hendricks.
I am not sure how each fight will pan out, only time will tell but what I do know is the welterweight division still has enough talent and contenders to keep the division moving whether GSP returns or not is up to him but the UFC Welterweight division is still an exciting division for us fans.
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