George St. Pierre in the 2012 Olympics?

There is no doubt that UFC fighter George St. Pierre is the number one welterweight in the world. The six-time and current UFC welterweight champ has a scheduled bout with Dan Hardy that is supposed to occur on March 27th, 2010. According to mmajunkie.com he recently stated in an interview that the fight with Hardy could be his last for a while as he may attempt to qualify for the 2012 Olympics as a member of Canada's wrestling team. As a 28 year old now in 2010, this is definitely his best shot and maybe only shot at achieving one of his goals of wrestling in the Olympics. There are questions that go along with this such as will he even make the team? Should he leave the UFC for the Olympics? and what would it do to his legacy as a fighter if he left for the Olympics? Having followed GSP for most of his career I will try to answer these questions.

GSP is one of the best mixed martial artists on the planet, there is no doubt about that but wrestling is a totally different sport. GSP never wrestled at a high level as an amateur and never wrestled collegiately like a lot of MMA fighters have. He even went on record saying he didn't think he was at the level right now to be able to make the team. After his March 27 fight against Dan Hardy there will have to be some layoff time even for the in shape GSP. This would give him about a year to make this team against guys who only wrestle and have been doing it for tens of years in some cases. I have no doubts about his physical greatness but I don't know if this feat is even possible for him.

The other question is whether or not this even makes sense for GSP. Not only would he be leaving a ton of money behind, but he would be leaving a sport in which a few more years could fully cement his legacy as one of the all time greats in the sport of MMA. It is a personal decision for him and if he is comfortable with his financial situation which I presume he is, if he is happy with where he is at in the sport of MMA, and if this is truly one of his dreams, then he should go all out for it. And yes he could make a comeback to MMA after the Olympics or after having trained in wrestling should he not make it, but he would be very rusty and would be risking a Michael Jordan type spiral to his legacy.

All in all, this is a very intriguing story with one of the best and most popular fighters in the UFC potentially risking his star status and going into a field in which the results are unknown. I hope that whatever decisions he makes proves to be the right one because GSP is a very classy and likable guy.