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Greg Jackson: Georges St. Pierre has his eye on Johny Hendricks

Greg Jackson: Georges St. Pierre has his eye on Johny Hendricks - MMAmania.com

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Despite one of Georges St. Pierre's coaches, Firas Zahabi, recently saying Nick Diaz is the true No. 1 contender in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) welterweight division, another one of St. Pierre's trainers, Greg Jackson, says the camp has an eye on Johny Hendricks.

After St. Pierre's most recent victory over Carlos Condit at UFC 154 last month, Jackson appeared on Monday's edition of Inside MMA on AXS TV where the famed trainer discussed who and what is next for the UFC welterweight champion.

His words:

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"I don't know [who GSP will fight next], there's certainly some really tough guys out there, I'll tell you who we got our eye on is Hendricks. The guy's got a big bomb, he's good wrestling and I think he's going to pose a lot of problems, so we've really got to keep our eye on him."

In the eyes of most mixed martial arts (MMA) fans, Hendricks become the number one 170-pound contender with a brutal first-round knockout of Martin Kampmann just minutes before St. Pierre defeated Condit at UFC 154 in Montreal.

If anyone is going to get a welterweight title shot, Hendricks more than deserves it after consecutive wins over Jon Fitch, Josh Koscheck and Kampmann.

Now, of course, the elephant in the room when it comes to any discussion about St. Pierre's next fight is Anderson Silva. It's very obvious at this point both the UFC and Silva want the fight to happen, but St. Pierre seems reluctant to move up in weight in order to make the super fight a reality.

While Jackson doesn't know exactly what St. Pierre's fighting scheduled is going forward, he says if GSP does end up fighting Silva, he will be there to help the French-Canadian prepare as he would for any fight, something he was unable to do most recently because of a Condit conflict of itnterest.

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"I honestly don't know [if GSP will fight Silva next], I'll be there to help, myself and all the rest of the coaches who help Georges will be there to help if that happens, but I'm not sure it's all up to GSP and what he decides."

Since his knockout of Kampmann at UFC 154, Hendricks has made it abundantly clear he has no intentions of stepping in the Octagon again unless a UFC championship belt is on the line.

Should St. Pierre fight Silva, Hendricks would be on the sidelines for an undetermined amount of time. Some say it would be in Hendricks' best interest to fight again in that timeframe, but Jackson thinks that unless "Bigg Rigg" has to sit on the sidelines for an unreasonable time period, it's not a big deal to wait out.

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"I guess you should probably find out the distance of time involved, and if it's a ton of time you probably want to take another fight but if it's half a year or something that's not a big deal."

Well here's hoping he's telling the truth! I would very much like to see Hendricks vs St. Pierre next, screw this Silva talk.

I would love for GSP to come out and just say he doesn't want to fight Anderson Silva, it's a silly fight because he's way too big for GSP. Any trainer will agree that size plays a factor in the outcome of a fight, so all other things being equal Silva should win because he's simply bigger. If GSP were to win that fight, he would need to be considerably better than Silva because not only does he need to surpass his skill-set, he needs to make up for the size that he's giving up - it's essentially giving a fighter a handicap, which is dumb.

The Hendricks fight is a much better fight, IMO

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Originally Posted by LukeSalvatore (Post 989209)

And that's why I'm only interested in this fight if it happens at 170. If Silva can give up some of that size advantage I'd be a lot more interested. If the fight takes place anywhere above 170 I wouldn't be too keen on it, I'd still watch it, it just woulnd't really impress me if Silva won.

Good. Hendricks deserves the shot. I think my sig says it all

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Originally Posted by Fe1 (Post 989244)

Good. Hendricks deserves the shot. I think my sig says it all

I definitely agree that Hendricks deserves the shot but I would rather see Diaz-GSP.

This is good. Jackson probably understands that GSP wanting to fight the easier fighter and bigger money fight in Diaz is way too Anderson Silva cowardly like.

We can get both fights you know :grinsmile1: and everyone would win!!

Firas Zahabi sticking by stance on Diaz over Hendricks for GSP's next defense

MMAjunkie.com

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Firas Zahabi was unaware his opinion on Nick Diaz had caused such a splash.

The Tristar Gym trainer didn't mean to stir controversy, he today told MMAjunkie.com (MMAjunkie.com), but said Diaz dominates the inquiries he receives from fans in his native Montreal. That's why Diaz is his pick for No. 1 UFC welterweight contender to his prized pupil, champion Georges St-Pierre.

"It's just that the Diaz fight has been cooking for a long time," Zahabi said. "Wherever I go, people jump on me and ask me when he's fighting Diaz."

In an interview this past week, Zahabi said that while Diaz and Johny Hendricks are worthy contenders to the UFC welterweight title, which has long been held by St-Pierre, Diaz's resume justifies an immediate title shot.

The opinion prompted a stern rebuttal from the camp of Hendricks, who was earmarked for the same position following a first-round knockout of Martin Kampmann at UFC 154.

Mike Dolce, a weight and nutrition consultant, said, "Nick hasn't beaten anybody substantial in the welterweight division to earn that shot. Nick certainly will be in line soon. He's got to get a couple of wins. Johny's got those wins already."

Hendricks, meanwhile, drew the line on the significance of his next fight, saying he would only compete for a title. Both Hendricks and Dolce suggested Zahabi might be vying for an easier opponent for St-Pierre.

Zahabi, though, said he's simply offering his opinion.

"It's been years I've been answering that question," he said. "'No, he's not fighting Diaz. He's fighting (Carlos) Condit.' I have to explain it a thousand times. It's been on our mind for a long time. It's not about anything personal or anything else. It's just been cooking for a long time."

St-Pierre and Diaz were scheduled to fight at UFC 143, but St-Pierre was forced to withdraw when he tore his ACL in training. The Montreal-based fighter returned in the headliner of UFC 154 and unanimously outpointed interim champ Condit to defend his belt.

While Zahabi stuck by his opinion on the UFC's current welterweight picture, he seemed to shy away from commenting on a heavily anticipated superfight between St-Pierre and middleweight champ Anderson Silva.

Silva's manager, Ed Soares, recently told FUEL TV's "UFC Tonight" that he thought the fight wouldn't take place. Zahabi said he hadn't spoken to St-Pierre on the issue and said it wasn't his place to comment on the direction of the welterweight champ's career.

"I don't manage Georges, so I think that's a talk he has with his manager and they have with the UFC," he said. "When people ask me if I think he should fight, it's just my own personal opinion. I don't get calls from (UFC matchmaker) Joe Silva.

"I think if that fight happens, it could happen in the near future or it could happen later on. I have no idea. I'd just be guessing. I asked him if he wanted to fight Silva. He told me yes. There's a lot to be negotiated, so I don't know much more than that."

** Someone needs to call a team meeting here :grinsmile1: