There are a few huge UFC fights coming our way in the next 5 weeks, including three title fights - in the heavyweight, welterweight and lightweight divisions.

But it's interesting to consider that while Florian-Penn is more than a month away, and Bisping-Henderson is an undercard fight on UFC 100, both of those fights - not to mention Lesnar-Mir - have been the subject of more "chatter" in the MMA blogosphere and forums recently than another fight which is a week away and as big or bigger than any of them: Georges St. Pierre vs. Thiago Alves.

GSP is by all accounts one of the top five pound for pound fighters in the game.  He arguably hasn't even peaked yet as a fighter, yet he's already in the conversation for the most dominant welterweight in UFC history.  He is coming off of his biggest victory - a four-round annihilation of fellow P4P contender BJ Penn - and is 11-1 in the past four and a half years.  And in one week, he's facing arguably his biggest challenge in Thiago "Pitbull" Alves.  Yet for the relative press this bout is receiving, you would think GSP and Alves were an undercard gatekeeper fight.

The reason why is not incomprehensible.  The other big fights all have subplot drama and a fair amount of smack talk to hype them. 

Florian-Penn has the intrigue of the clear #1 contender fighting the champ; speculation regarding how Penn will recover from the mauling he took from GSP; allegations that Florian tipped Penn to "greasing" by GSP, and the always-provocative subplot of GSP helping Florian train for the fight.

Mir-Lesnar is a second title fight and is the upcoming fight with a lopsided proportion of ink dedicated to it, fires that have remained stoked by both combatants as they have waged their back-and-forth verbal jousting through the MMA press.  It has the further appeal of the grudge match, the freakshow element with Brock's physique and previous life in pro wrestling, the title unification aspect which will likely see both guys' camps carry a belt into the cage, questions about how far Lesnar has evolved since his first loss to Mir - just to name a few.

Henderson-Bisping isn't even a title fight - at best it will be a title contending fight - but it has also gotten its share of attention due to the two being opposing coaches on TUF and waging their own war of words.  The UFC manufactures rivalries at times, and this is one that clearly rolled off the factory belts via the "country vs. country" theme of TUF season 9.

Against the backdrop of all of those, the 170-pound title fight that is GSP-Alves has barely made a ripple.  Despite the greatness of a dominant champ who will eventually retire as one of the best to enter a ring or cage, facing his toughest test, you can be forgiven for practically forgetting this fight is about to happen if you take your talking points from the MMA media.  The reason why is straightforward - while the three fights named above all have at least one or two main plots and multiple subplots, GSP-Alves has one basic plot: who is going to win this fantastic stylistic matchup and emerge as the welterweight champion of the UFC?

It's a purist's fight.  It carries little subplot intrigue, essentially no trash talking, two very respectful and dedicated athletes, and sells itself entirely on the stylistic clash of these two dominant fighters.  The fight is likely to hinge on whether GSP will be able to put Alves on his back often enough and keep him there long enough - while taking minimal damage on the feet from Alves' brutal muay thai skills - to wear him out as the fight progresses.  If GSP can accomplish this, he will win a decision or possibly stop Alves.  If he can't, Alves - being the most dangerous and varied striker by far that GSP has faced - could well stop Georges in the stand-up game.

To me this fight has at least one additional point of interest which hasn't been much discussed.  GSP has been methodically cleaning out the welterweight division. Referring to the USA Today/SB Nation welterweight rankings, St. Pierre has soundly dominated #3 Fitch in a 25-minute fight; destroyed #5 Hughes twice, brutally stopping him both times; outwrestled and dominated #8 Koscheck; and avenged his loss to #18 Serra with a two-round stoppage.  Beyond Alves, this leaves only Kampmann and Swick as imminent UFC challengers.  These two are tapped to square off at UFC 103 in September; the winner would in my mind be the #1 challenger. I think either would pose problems for GSP to solve, but are neither as well rounded as Penn and Fitch nor as dangerous as Alves. After that there is a dropoff; I believe Paulo Thiago, Dan Hardy, Karo Parisyan, Brock Larson, Dustin Hazelett are at least 2-3 solid wins from a title shot.

So, characterizing the title-contender queue as a series of hills to get up and over, I view Alves as the last mountain for GSP for the foreseeable future; and should he take the summit, he will have a downhill vantage point to survey any likely near-future challenge.  This in itself makes this fight worthwhile to me, as the 170-pound weight class has long been viewed as one of the deepest in MMA and its upper echelon is on the verge of being almost totally cleaned out by Georges St. Pierre.

Subplots are great.  Trash talk and side intrigue in MMA is terrific, and I love it as much as the next guy.  But save a little room in your anticipation for Georges St. Pierre vs. Thiago Alves.  It's one of the biggest MMA fights of this generation, and it's just over a week away.