Besides the obvious mixed-martial-arts hero, Georges St-Pierre, the country of Canada—for being as geographically large as it is, doesn't have a long list of fighters knocking down the door to UFC stardom.
And now, with that short-list being suddenly even more shortened with the retirement of Ontario's 155'er Mark Hominick, we may have to wait and see if recent newcomer, and Albertan, Mike Ricci, is able to step-up to the plate after his recent loss this past weekend and fill-in the UFC lightweight void.
Another personnel favorite at 155 is the toe-to-toe warrior, and another Ontarian, Sam Stout.
Stout is a showstopper, win or lose, and a real bang-for-bang stand-up specialist, but he remains at mid-level, and was recently defeated by Nova Scotian, and hometown Halagonian, John Makdessi.
Unfortunately, neither 'Hands of Stone" nor Hominick have looked quite the same since losing—for Stout, his brother-in-law and for Hominick, a best friend and head-trainer—Shawn Tompkins.
Tompkins shockingly, at age 37, saddened the fight-community by succumbing to heart-failure back on August 14, 2011.
Nova Scotian, TJ Grant, who's normally a 170-pounder, now a lightweight, is beginning to tear his way upward. Yet, while on a three-fight winning streak, Grant still remains at mid-level.
Additionally, Grant's new-found winning ways could merely be a by-product of moving down to 155-pounds thus taking advantage of a very-slight but ever-present-size-difference over some of the division's physically smaller men.
We won't know the real answer to that theory until Grant is truly tested by someone in the top five of his division. Nate Diaz, or Gray Maynard perhaps.
British Columbia's Rory MacDonald certainly looks the part of a future champ; but he has not one but two roadblocks in his way.
The first one being the fact that he trains in the same gym, and competes in the same weight-class as his friend and mentor, the above-mentioned St-Pierre.
That current liability wouldn't be bad thing in any other sport. But in the fight game it's every man for himself.
"GSP" just happens to have, since 2007, a death grip on the championship belt and I cannot foresee anyone relieving him of it—unless however he somehow runs headfirst into what I like to call " Johny Hendricks's sneaky-left hand " as Jon Fitch and Martin Kampmann recently did.
As it stands, both St. Pierre and MacDonald are trying their damnedest to ignore the constant barrage of questions from the fickle-mma-media on the above subject, but as we hardcore fans all know, ignoring the proverbial elephant in the room is not going to make it go away.
And you can bet that the UFC money hungry promoter, Dana White, will soon be pressuring them to fight each other. White seemingly thinks cagefighters should grapple their own mother for a few thousand bucks.
One thing is for certain, "Ares" is practically, metaphorically-speaking, sitting patiently on GSP's Tri-Star-Gym doorstep and waiting to exhale...as they say; and with neither man wanting to fight each other the air at the Montreal Gym must be so thick you could cut it with a knife.
The above dilemma, however, between these two Canadian warriors may soon take care of itself, as both men have tough fights against two hungry lions coming up over the Canadian horizon very soon, in March, 2013.
MacDonald is gambling that he's improved enough, since their first meeting back in June 2010, to this time send Carlos Condit to dreamland in a UFC 158 rematch.
While St. Pierre, with fingers crossed—because this match-up has been announced and cancelled more times than a George Jones concert from the early 70's—will finally get to unload the unfinished business with the man, whom I opine, is easily a top-five-pound-for-pound fighter, Nick Diaz.
Stay tuned. UFC 158: St-Pierre vs. Diaz is an upcoming mixed martial arts event to be held by the Ultimate Fighting Championship on March 16, 2013 at the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. You can follow me if you like on Twitter at @cagestokerblog
