UFC 100 – George St-Pierre Defends Belt

Hopeful Thiago Alves Hopes to Knock Out GSP

Can the Canadian Athlete of the year 2008 strike down yet another young hopeful? If record and performance have anything to do with it, Georges St-Pierre will win his match against Thiago Alves at UFC 100.

George St-Pierre a Domininat Force in the UFC

His fight history shows that GSP was born to be champion. After entering the UFC in January of 2004 to fight his debut against the then 10-3 veteran fighter Karo "The Heat" Parrisyan, St-Pierre showed everyone he was here to stay with a unanimous victory. St-Pierre then went on defeat 4-0 fighter Jay Hieron in 1:45 of the first round. After only two fights GSP was offered an opportunity to compete for the vacant Welterweight title against Matt Hughes.

St-Pierre would go on to lose the match when the much more experienced Hughes forced a tap out with a second left in the 1st round. Since his loss to Hughes, St-Pierre has been able to accumulate 10 more victories, including a win for the Welterweight belt. He lost only his second match to Matt Serra, but followed up the loss by capturing interim championship title by defeating Matt Hughes.

Soon after he became the undisputed champion by destroying Serra late in the second round with his knees. He has since defended the title twice, once in a unanimous decision over Jon Fitch and then by TKO against BJ Penn.

Alves Dreams of Being a Champion

So who is the young hopeful looking to shock the world? At 16-3-0 and ranked #3 in the world, Thiago Alves is being given a shot at the title, although there are questions about whether he's up for the challenge.

Some believe that after winning 7 straight and 9 out of his last 10 fights he is the one to take the title. A closer look at his record shows that he has primarily dominated only in the area of stand-up, having 2 of his 3 loses to submission.

Most recently Alves has defeated two fighters with solid ground games, Matt Hughes, who allowed Alves to fight despite missing weight, and Josh Koscheck, who was a last second replacement for Diego Sanchez. But controversial victories are not new to Alves, who was banned for 8 months from the UFC after testing positive for a banned substance. Alves has one final strike against him, his last loss, by way of TKO, came from none other than Jon Fitch whom St-Pierre defeated in August '08.

The complete card for UFC 100 is:

• Lesner Vs. Mir
• St-Pierre Vs. Alves
• Fitch Vs. Thiago
• Henderson Vs. Bisping
• Akiyama Vs. Belcher
• Coleman Vs. Bonnar
• Danzig Vs. Miller
• Jones Vs. O'Brien
• Kim Vs. Goulet
• Dollaway Vs. Lawlor
• Grice Vs. Gugerty