It's 4 a.m., and I find myself hoping that come Friday afternoon, that this fight is officially for a title.
Georges is coming off the destruction of BJ Penn in arguably the most anticipated rematch in mixed martial arts history. He looked amazing, and huge as always. St. Pierre has the weight cutting down to a science. This helps him out come fight time when he's hydrated and much larger than his opponents, well mostly. He's finally going to run into a welterweight who is possibly bigger than he is. Problem? Most likely not. GSP is in my opinion the best wrestler in mixed martial arts. He uses it better than anyone else, and it helps loads that he has great stand up to set up the takedowns. Georges is going to look to take Thiago down throughout the fight and wear him down. He'll be looking to stay out of clinch range and avoid nasty knees from Alves. His best option is to take him down and work for a submission.
Alves is coming in after dismantling Josh Koscheck for three rounds. He is also coming off the destruction of Matt Hughes last summer, though at a catch weight.(I believe 174 pounds) Thiago has brutal stand up, but relies heavily on leg kicks, which will end up being his demise against a wrestler like GSP. He'll need to try and get in close and work combinations with his hands, maybe landing leg kicks moving away.
This is what he'll try to do in my opinion, but it'll be hard for him to stay on his feet no matter how drastically his takedown defense has gotten. As we saw in the fight with Karo Parisyan, Alves can be manhandled on the ground. We also saw in that fight that if you try to stand and play Thiago's game, you'll end up on the mat with your mouthpiece right next to you.(No timeouts Jamie Varner style either.) Georges is a much smarter fighter than Karo though, and knows to stick to a gameplan. I think Georges takes him down constantly for two rounds and ends up in mount, where he swings and grabs an arm.
Result: Georges St. Pierre by 2nd Round Submission.
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