UFC 129: How Many Hoops Must Georges St-Pierre Jump Through to Clean out 170?

On April 30, UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre tangles with the world's No. 2 welterweight, Jake Shields, in a battle for supremacy at 170 pounds.

The fight is being discussed as a huge hurdle for both men. The fight of their lives.

Riding a 15-fight win streak and championship-level success in other promotions, Shields is a formidable foe. From all accounts, St-Pierre is calling this the biggest fight of his career, and insists he is preparing accordingly.

Can Shields win this fight? Of course he can.

And yet, despite the genuinely crucial nature of this fight and the proclamations about what a stiff test this will be for the champ, St-Pierre is a comfortable -500 favorite in Vegas to once again defend the strap.

Actually, that sounds about right. If I happened to be a betting man, I have a wallet here that I'd put on GSP.

But this all begs a different question that goes beyond UFC 129: How many more hurdles are the UFC and the MMA-following public going to place in front of St-Pierre before we all finally shake hands and acknowledge the nose in front of our faces?

The nose, in this case, being the fact that St-Pierre has cleaned out the UFC's welterweight division, and is now ready to move on to something else.

UFC president Dana White has repeatedly stated that for a champion to vacate a belt and pursue a title in another weight class, he must first defeat every viable challenger to his title. 

Perhaps you have heard some news or speculation about GSP maybe possibly moving to middleweight to fight Anderson Silva? Evidently, that is still a possibility that is potentially going to be considered, perhaps.

So there's that. But even if that never materializes, the question persists: What does a cleaned-out welterweight division look like? It always seems that GSP is one fight away.

Personally, I am growing a little weary of watching various people pull the football off the tee right when St-Pierre is ready to kick it. That's why I think that if St-Pierre defeats Jake Shields, that would—and should—do the trick. That's it. Closing time. And the UFC should explicitly state as much.

After all, you gotta draw the line somewhere. After GSP dominated Jon Fitch, the talk turned to how St-Pierre would handle a striker like Thiago Alves. That's the real challenge, the argument went.

Turns out GSP handled Alves much the same way he handled Fitch.

But some people still didn't care for the cut of GSP's jib. Alves had a hard time cutting weight, or whatever the excuse was. I don't even remember. 

So the goal posts moved again.

What would St-Pierre do when he had to face a bully, a guy with a bad attitude who could get inside his head and mix it up with the trash talk and the gamesmanship and the so forth?

How about Dan Hardy? He's pretty mouthy. Or what about Josh Koscheck? That guy could irritate a Tibetan monastery. 

After GSP threw Hardy and Koscheck on the pile, Dana White did indeed speak to this, saying, "There's always somebody there. There's always going to be new guys popping up, but when do you say the division is finally [expletive] clean?"

And then, like an un-whacked mole, up pops Jake Shields.  

Now, of course, everyone is saying GSP has finally met his match.

Fine. Great. Throw another one on the pile, I suppose. But I ask you: If St-Pierre wins, what's next? Who else is out there to put in his way?

Nick Diaz, you say? You mean Nick Diaz, the boxer?

A rematch with Fitch? A third bout against B.J. Penn? Carlos Condit? Diego Sanchez? A very special International Waters Fight with Paul Daley?

If the UFC wants St-Pierre to go in any of these directions, I'm certain he will do so. I'm also fairly certain he'll do so with ease.

Silva Superfight or no, at some point, you start to ask where the end is for this tunnel of hoops, and whether there aren't just some people who will never acknowledge that Georges St-Pierre is (almost literally) in a class by himself.

For more on UFC 129 fights, news and updates, check out Bleacher Report's ongoing coverage.