It has been an eventful 12 months in the UFC.
We’ve seen seven new champions crowned in 2016 alone.
Meanwhile at the end of last year, Ronda Rousey lost her title to Holly Holm (who then lost it to Miesha Tate, who lost it to Amanda Nunes) and the Conor McGregor hype train reached terminal velocity after his 13-second KO of Jose Aldo before he was submitted by an under-trained Nate Diaz just a few months later.
Depending on how you look at it, it’s either a golden age of MMA or a generation lacking a true great to rise above the rest. Someone like, say, UFC legend Georges St-Pierre.
GSP has been teasing a return to the octagon for some time now, having not fought in the UFC since he defended (and then vacated) his welterweight title against Johny Hendricks in November 2013.
The 35-year-old has said before that he would consider a fight against current featherweight champion Conor McGregor if the Irishman called him out, and we’re starting to believe that the superfight would have been on the cards for UFC 200 if McGregor had just gotten past Diaz at UFC 196.
And now the release of the latest edition of UFC Full Blast shows the Canadian fighter sitting ringside while McGregor and Diaz did battle in March.
St-Pierre gives a live commentary of his thoughts, which we can only imagine would have been used in promoting Notorious/GSP match up months later.
GSP seems impressed with McGregor’s striking and gameplan, but you can see his delight once Diaz tags his opponent in the second round and just puts a clinic on his rival.
Reports since UFC 196 suggest that if McGregor had won, he would have been given a shot at (the now de-throned) Robbie Lawler for the welterweight title, but perhaps the call of a superfight against GSP would have been too hard to resist.
But based on how Diaz turned him onto his back once the going got tough, perhaps it’s best of McGregor’s sake that he was never put in the same cage as GSP.
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