Georges St-Pierre believes Rory MacDonald deserves UFC title shot

Feb 15, 2014; Jaragua do Sul, SC, Brazil; Georges St-Pierre before a fight between Ronaldo Souza (red gloves) and Francis Carmont (blue gloves) during UFC Fight Night Machida vs Mousasi at Arena Jaragua. Mandatory Credit: Jason Silva-USA TODAY Sports

This past weekend, at UFC 171, Johny Hendricks defeated Robbie Lawler by unanimous decision to become the newly minted undisputed Welterweight champion. It was the first time in nearly eight years that the undisputed champion was decided without Georges St-Pierre fighting for the belt.

The UFC set up a pseudo Welterweight tournament at UFC 171 with Tyron Woodley vs Carlos Condit as the co-main event. It was more than likely that the winner of that bout would be given the next Welterweight title shot. Unfortunately, the bout was stopped after Condit incurred a devastating knee injury. While Woodley was given the TKO victory, it certainly did not cement him as the #1 contender.

Hector Lombard defeated Jake Shields on the UFC 171 card as well, but his victory was not without criticism. Although Lombard thoroughly dominated Shields through three rounds, Lombard did not take any chance to prove he is the deserving contender for the Welterweight title shot. Instead, Lombard was content to coast in round 3, knowing he already had won the two previous rounds.

With no obvious title contender, Joe Rogan stated afterwards that he believes that Rory MacDonald is the most worthy contender. Today, on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Hour, longtime former Welterweight champion, Georges St-Pierre agreed that MacDonald should be the next in line.

GSP stated that Rory’s win over Demian Maia back at UFC 170 was deserving of the title shot. After a terrible first round, Rory dominated the second and third rounds en route to an impressive unanimous decision victory.

GSP and MacDonald are longtime training partners and friends. During GSP’s reign at the top of the Welterweight division, many believed that MacDonald was a worthy contender to fight GSP for the title. Both men refused to fight, however, and MacDonald continued to pick off contenders.

If MacDonald had defeated Robbie Lawler at UFC 167, he would have definitely gotten his shot at Johny Hendricks this past weekend at UFC 171. With his rebound win over Maia, it is certainly possible that we can see MacDonald fighting for the belt next.